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// 



THE NEW YORK 

PUBLIC LIBRARY 



ASTOR. LENOX AND 
TILDEN POUNDATIQN'8. 



A HISTORY 



"-^ \ OF THE 



uttn»f 
Ccut 



COUNTY DUBLIN: 



THE PEOPLE, PARISHES AND ANTIQUITIES FROM THE EARLIEST 
TLMES TO THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



PART FOURTH 



Being* a History of that portion of the County comprised within 
the Parishes of 



CLONSILLA, LEIXLIP, LUCAN, ADERRIG, KILMACTALWAY, 
KILBRIDE, KILMAHUDDRICK, ESKER, PALMERSTON, 

BALLYFERMOT, CLONDALKIN, DRIMNAGH, 

GRUMLIN, ST. CATHERINE, ST. NICHOLAS WITHOUT, 

ST. JAMES, ST. JUDE, AND CHAPELIZQD, 

AS WELL AS WITHIN THE PHCENIX PARK. 



FRANCIS ELRINGTON BALL. 



DUBLIN: 

PRINTKD and PUBI.ISHED BY Al,EX. ThOM & Co. (LIMITED), ABBEY-ST. 

1906, 



THE NEW YORK 
PUBLIC LIBRARY 

451700 

A87 0ft, LENOX AND 
TILOEN FOUNDATION*. 
R 1908 i^ 



PREFACE TO THE FOURTH PART. 



With the object of completing this History in six parts the 
present one has been considerably increased in size. It is 
hoped that the delay which, as a consequence, has attended its 
publication may be compensated for by the exceptional interest 
of the district to which its pages refer. Several of the great 
residences of the metropolitan county will be found to come 
under review, and the lives of not a few statesmen and 
soldiers who have had a share in shaping the destinies of 
Ireland are touched upon. 

In acknow^ledging the assistance w^hich has again been so 
freely accorded to me my thoughts turn first to my lamented 
friend, the Eev. William Reynell, whose death occurred while 
the present part of this History was in the press. His know- 
ledge of the social and ecclesiastical history of his country, and 
his generosity in imparting his learning, have been mentioned 
by many writers on Irish subjects. To those who enjoyed 
his more intimate friendship there is in addition a memory of 
one endeared to them by a character of unassuming piety and 
kindliness. In the progress of this History Mr. Reynell took 
the deepest interest ; to obtain information for its pages no 
trouble was for him too great to undertake, and the recollec- 
tions of his w^ell-stored and suggestive mind were ever at my 
service. 

Mr. C. Litton Falkiner has read the proof sheets, and the 
officials of the Public Record Office of Ireland, the Deputy 
Keeper, Mr. James Mills, the Assistant Deputy Keeper, Mr. 
Henry F. Berry, and Mr. M. J. M'Enery, have been unceas- 



IV. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH PART. 



ing in their sympathetic help. I have again to thank Mr. 
Thomas J: Westropp for many of the illustrations and descrip- 
tions of ancient remains, Dr. P. W. Joyce for the derivations 
of townland names, Mr. Tenison Groves for transcripts of 
documents, and the Most Eev. Dr. Donnelly, Bishop of Canea, 
Mr. G. D. Burtchaell, Mr. W. G. Strickland, and Mr. W. H. 
Eobinson for assistance on many occasions. 

Permission has been given by the Councils of the Eoyal 
Irish Academy and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 
for the reproduction of sketches and photographs in their 
possession, and by the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery 
Office for the use of the Ordnance Map in making the frontis- 
piece. Finally, I have to acknowle<ige, as in previous parts, 
my indebtedness to Sir Arthur Vicars, Ulster King of Arms, 
Mr. Alfred de Burgh, of Trinity College Library, Mr. T. W. 
Lyster, of the National Library, Mr. J. J. M'Sweeney, of the 
Eoyal Irish Academy, and the officials of the British Museum 
and Bodleian Libraries. 

F. ELEINGTON BALL. 

Dublin, October, 1906. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Parish of Clonsilla : 

Luttrellstown and its Castle, ... 1 

Ecclesiastical History, . . . .20 

Part of the Parish of Leixlip : 

St. Catherine's Park, . . .22 

Parish of Lucan : 

Lucan and its Castle, . . . .35 

Ecclesiastical History, . . . .55 

Parish of Aderrig : 

Aderrig with the Castle of Adamstown, . . 68 

Ecclesiastical History, . , . .61 

Parish of Kilmactalway : 

Castle Bagot, ..... 63 

Ecclesiastical History, . . . .66 

Parish of Kilbride : 

Baldonnell House and the surrounding Lands> . 68 
Ecclesiastical History, . * . .69 

Parish of Kilmahuddrick : 

Kilmahuddrick, . . .71 

Ecclesiastical History, . . .72 

Parish of Eskbr : 

Esker, with Hermitage and its Neighbourhood, . 75 
Ecclesiastical History, . . . .82 



VI CONTENTS. 



Page 

Parish of Palmerston : 

Palmerston, ' . . . . .84 

Ecclesiastical History, . . , .99 

Parish of Ballyfermot : 

Ballyfermot, . . . . .101 

Ecclesiastical History, .... 106 

Parish of Clondalkin : 

Clondalkin, . . . .107 

Ecclesiastical History, . . . . 121 

Parish of Drimnagh : 

Drimnagh Castle, ..... 125 
Ecclesiastical History, . . . 132 

Parish of Crumlin : 

The Village of Crumlin, . . .134 

Ecclesiastical History, .... 146 

Portions of the Parishes of St. Catherine and 
St. Nicholas Without : 

Harold's Cross, . . . .149 

Portions of the Parishes of St. James and St. Jude, 

Dolphin's Barn, ..... 153 
The Kilmainham Vicinity, .... 156 

Parish of Chapelizod : 

Chapelizod, . . . .163 

Ecclesiastical History, . . . .176 

The Phcenix Park, ...... 179 

Index, ....... 199 



INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH PART. 



The parishes included in this part of the History form the 
more western portion of the County Dublin, a district which 
is intersected by the Eiver Liffey, as well as by the Grand 
Canal and the Great Southern and Western Railway. They 
are bounded to the south and east by the parishes included in 
the former parts of the History and by the City of Dublin, to 
the west by the County Kildare, and to the north by the 
parishes of Mulhuddart, Castleknock, and Finglas, and lie 
within the baronies of Castleknock, Nethercross, Newcastle, 
and Uppercross. Some townlands in the parishes immediately 
bordering on the City of Dublin have recently been annexed 
to the metropolis, but it has been thought convenient for the 
purposes of this work, terminating, as it does, at the close of 
the eighteenth century, to adopt the Circular Eoad as the 
boundary between the city and county. 

To the earliest history of the county, particularly in the time 
of the Scandinavian invasion, some reference will be found in 
this part under Clondalkin, and of the events following the 
Anglo-Norman settlement information is given in connection 
with the Archbishop of Dublin's manor at that place, the 
King's manors at Esker and Crumlin, and the Grange of the 
Hospital of St. John without Newgate at Palmerston. The 
history of the churches also bear upon those periods, and stich 
remains as exist of early places of worship have been illus- 
trated and described. 

But the chief subjects of interest in this part relate to the 
history of the county under the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns. 
In the reign of Henry VIII. the Castle of Luttrellstown was 



viii. INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH PART. 



occupied by one of the most prominent judges of that time, 
Thomas Luttrell, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and in 
the reign of Queen EHzabeth St. Catherine's Park was the 
residence of Sir Nicholas White, a statesman who had held 
long converse with the maiden Queen as well as with her rival, 
Mary Queen of Scots. While James I. was on the throne, the 
Phoenix House, on whose site the Magazine in the Phoenix 
Park now stands, became the country abode of the chief 
governors, and Sir Henry Power, afterw^ards the first Viscount 
Valentia, a soldier of renown, appears at Chapelizod, and the 
Chancellor of Ireland, Viscount Loftus of Ely, at Drimnagh. 
Towards the close of the reign of Charles I. Sir Maurice 
Eustace, then Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, 
acquired possession of Palmerston, and during the Common- 
wealth a passing glimpse is caught at Luttrellstown of one of 
the regicides. Colonel John Hewson, and at Lucan of Sir 
Theopihilus Jones, who proved equally loyal to the rule of 
Parliament and King. After the Eestoration a number of 
eminent personages burst upon us, the great Duke of Ormonde 
at the Phoenix and afterwards at Chapelizod, Sir William 
Davys, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, at St. Catherine's, 
and Sir John Temple, Solicitor-General, the illustrious ances- 
tor of one of Queen Victoria's Prime Ministers, at Palmerston. 

The changes which followed upon the Eevolution are noticed 
under Lucan, then the property of the gallant Sarsfield, and 
the subsequent residence there of Mrs. Vesey, the famous blue 
stocking, connects that place with Samuel Johnson and the 
literary circle of his time. To the government of Ireland in 
the eighteenth century allusion is made under the Phoenix 
Park, where, amongst others, lived Luke Gardiner and 
Nathaniel Clements, and under Palmerston, where Provost 
Hutchinson had his country house. 



AUTHORITIES 



The authorities whose titles have been condensed, and the places of preservation 
of the manuscripts referred to, are as follows : — 

Journal R^ S. A. I. refers to the Journals of the Kilkenny Archaeological 
Society, of the Historical and Archaeological Society of Ireland, and of the Royal 
Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, following the consecutive numbering of the 
volumes 

Chartularies of St Mary's Abbey refers to " Chartularies of St Mary's Abbey, 
Dublin," edited by Sir John Gilbert in the Rolls Series. 

Fiants refers to the Calendars of Fiants in the 7th to the 22nd Reports of the 
Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland. 

Christ Church Deeds refers to the Calendar of Christ Church Deeds in the 20th 
to the 26th Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland. 

Patent Rolls refers to " Rotulorum Patentium et Clausorum Cancellariae 
Hibernise Calendarium," vol. i., part i. 

Chancery Inquisitions refers to " Inquisitionum in Officio Rotulorum Cancel- 
lariae Hibernise Asservartum Repertorium,'* vol. i., under Co. Dublin. 

Mills' Norman Settlement refers to a paper on " The. Norman Settlement in 
Leinster," by James Mills, Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, in the 
Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxiv., pp. 161-175. 

Archbishop Bulkeley's Report refers to " A Report on the Diocese of Dublin," 
by Archbishop Bulkeley, printed in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record^ vol. v., pp. 
145-166. 

Sweetman's Calendar refers to "Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, 
1171-1307," edited by H. S. Sweetman in the Record Publications. 

Liber Niger refers to a copy of the Register of Archbishop Alan, commonly 
called the Liber Niger, made by Bishop Reeves, and preserved in the Library of 
Trinity College, Dublin. 

The Down Survey Maps, Hearth-Money and Subsidy Rolls, Rolls of Innocents, 
Exchequer Inquisitions, Regal Visitation of 1615, Religious Returns, Wills, 
Grants, Justiciary, Plea and Memoranda Rolls, Crown Rentals, and Survey of Upper 
Cross and Newcastle^ are preserved in the Public Record Office of Ireland. 

Cooper's Note Book refers to MSS. of Austin Cooper, p.s.a., in the possession 
of Mr, Mark B^ Cooper. 

The Depositions of 1641 are preserved in Trinity College Library, Dublin. 
The Census of 1659 is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, 
The Carte Papers are preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. 




c 

^ J 



Parish of Clonsilla 

(».e., Cltiain-saileach or the meadow of sallows). 



The Parish of Clonsilla in the seventeenth century is stated to have comprised 
the townlands of Ballstown, Barberstown, Blackstaheney, Bamageeth, Clon- 
sillagh, Coolmine, Cusanstown, Hartstown, Ininstown, Killiestown, Lut- 
trellstown, Pibblestown, Bingwellstown, and Little Stackheney. 

It now contains the townlands of Astagob, Barberstown, Bamhill, Blakestown, 
Broomfield, Castaheany [i.e. Heany's House], Clonsilla, Coolmine [i.e. the 
smooth hill back], Hansfield or Phibblestown, Hartstown, Kellystown, 
Sheepmoor, and Woodlands. 



LUTTRELLSTOWN AND ITS CASTLE. 

LuTTRELLSTOWN, HOW the Seat of Lord Annaly, but from the 
middle ages until the nineteenth century the home of the Irish 
branch of the Luttrell family, is situated about eight miles to the 
west of Dublin between the Phoenix Park, and the county boundary 
on its IMeath and Kildare borders. The castle of Luttrellstown, 
although it comprises portion of a fortified building so ancient 
that tradition even asserts that one of its apartments was occupied 
by King John, is now in its most important features no more 
than a handsome house of the last century, whose large and 
well-proportioned reception rooms contain little to interest the 
antiquary (i). But the demesne excites universal admiration. 
Besides the natural advantages of its proximity to the river 
Liffey and its possession of a fine sheet of water and of old timber, 
it exhibits all that art can accomplish, and its beauty led to its 
being visited by Queen Victoria on more than one occasion (2) . 

The record of the Irish branch of the Luttrell family can hardly 
be said to stand high in the page of history, and the selection of 
their home as the chief subject of the present part of this work, 

(^) See Brewer's " Beauties of Ireland." vol. i., p. 267. 

(^) An obelisk composed of six blocks of granite in the demesne bears the fol- 
lowing inscription : — ** Victoria R. et I., 1819-1901, in commemoration of Her 
Majesty's visits to Luttrellstown, 1849-1900." See Ireland, vol. iv., p. 643, where 
the view of the castle given on the opposite page originally appeared. 

B 



PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



may perhaps cause some surprise. But the selection has been 
made deliberately because the continuity of ownership which the 
annals of Luttrellstown display, and for which the place is pre- 
eminent among the seats to be mentioned in the western portion 
of the county, is a feature only too seldom characteristic of Irish 
local history, to the interest of which it adds greatly. Its existence 
has been the reason that Monkstown, Merrion and Tallaght have 
been given first place in the parts of this work already published, 
and that Howth and Malahide are to be given the same prominence 
in the parts yet to be issued. 

The first member of the Luttrell family to come to Ireland was 
Sir GeoflFrey Luttrell, who had been an attached follower of King 
John when Earl of Mortain, and became one of the favourite 
ministers of that monarch after his accession to the throne. Sir 
GeoflFrey Luttrell attained to the position of a great magnate 
through his marriage to a daughter of the house of Paganel, a 
connection which brought to his family in more than one 
generation estates in various parts of England. From him 
descends the noble family of Luttrell of Dunster Castle, in Somer- 
setshire. LuttrelFs connection with Ireland appears to have begun 
in the year 1204. In the beginning of that year he was appointed 
on a commission to settle the disputes then existing in Ireland 
between the justiciary and the Anglo-Norman magnates of this 
country, and before its close he was named as a member of an 
advisory commission sent to this country with an injunction to the 
authorities to place undoubted reliance on all that the commis- 
sioners might expound concerning the King's Irish affairs. Six 
years later, in the summer of 1210, he accompanied King John on 
that monarch's visit to Ireland, when we find him acting as one 
of the paymasters of the mariners and galleymen employed in the 
large fleet required for the expedition, and forming one of the 
King's train at Kells, Carlingford, and Holywood, as well as at 
Dublin. Hardly had the King returned to England when Sir 
GeoflFrey Luttrell was once more sent to this country on a mission 
of state, and during the next few years we find him corresponding 
from this country with the King by means of a trusty messenger 
whom the King rewarded with liberality for his arduous services. 
In 1215 he was again in England in attendance on the King's 
person, advising King John in all matters relating to his Irish 
kingdom and witnessing many acts of the King concerning this 



LUTTRBLLSTOWN AND ITS CASTLE. 



country. Luttrell received several marks of royal favour, including 
the honour of knighthood, and as a culminating proof of the trust 
reposed in him was sent on an embassy to the Pope. While on 
this mission his death took place (i). 

There is little doubt that from Sir Geoffrey Luttrell the Irish, 
as well as the Somersetshire Luttrells are descended either in a 
direct or collateral line. His only son is said to have succeeded 
to his English estates, and in connection with his Irish property 
a daughter, who was given by the King in marriage to Philip 
Marc, is mentioned as his heir, but he purchased in Ireland shortly 
before his death the marriage of the second daughter of Hugh de 
Tuit, whose hand he probably conferred on some male representa- 
tive of his family in this country. From his time there is mention 
of persons of his name as resident in Ireland, the most important 
of these in the thirteenth century being Robert Luttrell, an 
ecclesiastic, who was Treasurer of the Cathedral Church of St. 
Patrick, and filled from 1235 to 1246 the office of Chancellor of 
Ireland. The only reference to Sir Geoffrey LuttrelFs estates in 
Ireland relates to land in Thomond, but Robert Luttrell appears to 
have had some connection with the Luttrellstown neighbourhood. 
Subsequently a ford near Lucan belonging to Michael Luttrell is 
mentioned, and in 1287 that member of the family paid a fine for 
John de Kerdiff, whose family gave name to Cardiffsbridge in the 
parish of Finglas. In the middle of the next century, in 1349, 
some land and a mill at the Salmon Leap near St. Wolstan*s were 
released to Simon Luttrell amongst others, and in little more than 
half a century we find Robert, son of John Luttrell, dealing with 
this property (2). 

From this John Luttrell, who had, besides his son Robert, a 
daughter who married one of the Plunketts, the descent of the 
owners of Luttrellstown can be traced in unbroken succession. His 
son Robert, who succeeded him, was a man of substance, and was 
employed by the Crown in the responsible position of collector of 
the subsidy in the Castleknock district. He inherited property, 
including Kindlestown, in the County Wicklow, from Sir Elias de 
Ashbourne, who has been mentioned in connection with Knocklyon 

(1) " Dunster and its Lords," by H. C. Maxwell Lyte, in The Archcedogical 
Journal, vol. xxxvii., pp. 154-179; Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1251, passim. 

(2) Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1251, jjossim, 1285-1392, pp. 97, 157; Liber 
Niger, p. 1004 ; Christ Church Deeds, No. 970. 

b2 



PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



in the parish of Tallaght, and who appears as a witness of the 
transfer of the Salmon Leap property to Simon Luttrell. H© was 
succeeded by his son Christopher Luttrell, who died in 1454, and 
the latter by his son Thomas Luttrell, who was stated at the time 
of his father's death, although only nineteen years of age, to be 
married to Ellen, daughter of Philip Bellew. In 1486 we find 
him filling the oflice of sheriff of his native county, and a reference 
to the rejoicings on the occasion of the marriage of a daughter 
of the house of Luttrellstown (when more than forty archers 
attended to support the bridegroom, and many citizens came from 
Dublin), shows the esteem in which the family was held by the 
other inhabitants of the English Pale. The bridegroom was one 
Nicholas Travers, than whom amongst all the multitude at that 
wedding we are told, there was not a taller or better bowman, and 
it is probable from this alliance between the house of Travers 
and of Luttrell that Sir John Travers of Monkstown, who is 
frequently mentioned in connection with their affairs, was a near 
relative of the Luttrells. Thomas Luttrell was succeeded at 
Luttrellstown by his son Richard Luttrell, who married Margaret, 
daughter of Patrick FitzLyon; and the latter in his turn by his 
son Thomas, who adopted the profession of the law and was one 
of the most distinguished members of the family (}). 

The Right Hon. Sir Thomas Luttrell, Chief Justice of the 
Common Pleas in Ireland, as he became, was a typical example 
of a gentleman of the English Pale of his time. In spite of the 
centuries which had elapsed since his family first settled in Ireland 
and of constant intercourse in his youth with the Irish, which is 
shown by his knowledge of the Irish language, he remained ever 
true to the interests of England, and looked upon Ireland, outside 
the small extent embraced in the Pale, as a foreign country. At 
the same time the long separation of his family from England 
caused him to have little in common with the inhabitants of that 
country, and to take what may perhaps be described as a parochial 
view of English policy. Notwithstanding the residence in England 
necessary for his admission to the legal profession, during which 
he must have made acquaintance with many of English birth, his 
relatives and more intimate friends all belonged to the small 

(1) Lodge's Peerage, vol. iii., p. 407, vol. vi., p. 161; Memoranda Rolls, 3 
Hen. VI., m. 16; 1 Hen. VII., pt. ii., m. 2 ; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, 
Henry VI., No. 1 ; Chancery Patent Roll, 44 Eliz., m. 4 ; D' Alton's " History 
of the County Dublin," p. 569. 



LUTTRELLSTOWN AND ITS CASTLE. 



community within the Pale. One of his sisters was married to 
Sir Patrick Barnewall of Turvey, who, like himself, was a lawyer 
and became Master of the Rolls, and another married as her first 
husband Nicholas Barnewall of Drimnagh, and as her second Sir John 
Plunkett of Dunsoghly, who was also a lawyer and became Chief 
Justice of the Queen's Bench. Of his two brothers, Robert, who 
was Archdeacon of Meath, never married, but the other, Simon, 
a merchant and alderman of Dublin, took as his wife a daughter 
of the house of Bathe. Both Chief Justice LuttrelFs own wives — 
for he was twice married — were also taken from old Pale families, 
one being the daughter of Bartholomew Aylmer of Lyons, and the 
other the daughter of Sir William Bathe, of Rathfeigh. 

Of LuttrelFs early life little is known. His first marriage appears 
to have taken place in 1506, when he can have been little more than 
a youth, and in 1527 he appears as plaintiff in a suit in the Common 
Pleas in connection with the property inherited from Sir Elias 
de Ashbourne. In 1532 his talents first received recognition from 
the Crown in his appointment as Solicitor-General and King's 
Serjeant in Ireland, and in 1534 he was promoted to the Bench 
as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas — a position he filled until 
his death twenty years later. He was an active member of the 
Council, in which capacity we find him accompanying Lord Deputy 
Grey on his expedition to meet Tirlagh O 'Toole, and on another 
occasion taking charge of Dublin in the Lord Deputy's absence; 
and it has been stated that he was instrumental in securing 
the preservation of the public records in a place of safety. 
When the Commission presided over by Sir Anthony St. Leger 
was sent to Ireland in 1537 by Henry VIII., Chief Justice Luttrell 
was one of those called upon to give evidence. He urged the desir- 
ability of restraining the defenders of the Pale in their exactions, 
which he feared would soon reduce the Pale to the same condition 
as the rest of Ireland, where obedience to their Prince was only 
feigned; the necessity of subduing their nearest enemies, the 
Kavanaghs, O'Tooles and O'Byrnes; the danger of employing Irish 
soldiers; the advantage of a Lord Deputy of English birth but 
with long tenure of oflfice ; and, with reference to the inhabitants of 
the Pale, the benefit of making the English dress and language, as 
well as knowledge of the use of the bow, compulsory, of expelling 
Irish bards and musicians, of preventing the return of Englishmen 
to their own country, and finally, of printing the statutes, a work 
only now about to be accomplished. Some letters from Chief Justice 



PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



Luttrell written about this time are still extant ; in one of these 
he refers to the capture of his relative Aylmer of Lyons, by the 
O'Tooles, and says that a ransom will have to be paid for his 
release; and in another he mentions the recent " ruffling time " with 
O'Neill, and says that rents will be slowly paid, as the farmers, 
whose services saved the Pale from utter destruction, are all lying 
out in camps. 

In the latter letter the Chief Justice also mentions the dissolution 
of the religious houses, by which he profited. St. Mary's Abbey 
had owned from the time of its foundation the lands of Coolmine, 
in Clonsilla parish, and in addition had obtained in the fifteenth 
century lands in that parish which had belonged to the Priory of 
Little Malvern in England. Of the latter lands Chief Justice 
Luttrell was tenant at the time of the dissolution, and doubtless 
then became owner. In addition he received grants of other 
monastic property, including some of the possessions of the Hospital 
of St. John the Baptist, to which he had acted as legal adviser. 
The estate which he had inherited from his father was no incon- 
siderable one, and must have been of material assistance to him 
in professional advancement. Of this we catch a glimpse in the 
rare and much prized goshawk sent by him as a present to Mr. 
Secretary CromwelL At the time of his death Chief Justice 
Luttrell was possessed of much personal as well as real property, 
and shortly after his death the Crown applied to his executors for 
the loan of what was then a very large amount of money. He kept 
open house in the castle of Luttrellstown, and entailed on the 
future owners certain property for the maintenance of hospitality 
there, together with the use of a basin and ewer of silver, a silver 
gilt salt cellar and cover, a dozen spoons, and a chain of fine gold 
of twenty links — articles of no small value as is shown by their 
weight in ounces, which the Chief Justice sets forth in his will. 

His death took place in 1554, and he was, doubtless, buried 
according to his directions, *' honestly but without pomp," in Clon- 
silla Church, which he directed should be extended sufficiently to 
admit of a sepulchre being made for him on the north side of the new 
part. He must have, at any rate outwardly, adopted the reformed 
faith, but his belief in its creed did not prevent his leaving money 
for the preferment in marriage of maidens of his kin in the hope 
of obtaining salvation for himself and his brother Simon. Besides 
providing for the extension of Clonsilla Church he left money for 



luttrellstown and its castle. 



the repair of the chancel and also for rebuilding the bridge at 
Mulhuddart. He left six sons and three daughters, one of whom 
was married to Luke Netterville of Dowth, who became one of 
the Justices of the Queen's Bench, and another to Thomas Dillon 
of Riverston. Another son, Richard, had predeceased him, leaving 
a daughter, for whom the Chief Justice made provision (i). 




Entrance to Luttrellstown In 1795. 

From a drawing by Jonathan Fisher. 

The Chief Justice was succeeded by his eldest son Christopher, 
who however survived him only a short time, and two years 
after the Chief Justice's death, in 1556, his second son, James, 
was in possession of Luttrellstown. In that year the latter was 
Sheriff of the County Dublin, and in the expedition against the 
Scottish invaders was ordered to serve in person as well as to 
contribute four mounted archers. His death, which took place in 
1557, was, like that of his brother, premature. In his will he 
appears in a very pleasing light as a landlord, leaving legacies to 



(*) Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., passim ; Exchequer Inquisition, County 
Dublin, Elizabeth, No. 237, in which the text of Sir Thomas Luttrell's will is given ; 
Memoranda Roll, 21 Hen. VII., m. 3 ; Chancery Patent RoU, 44 Eliz., m. 4 ; 
Smyth's " Law Officers of Ireland " ; Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. i., 
p. xxi., vol. ii., pp. xxi., 75 ; D' Alton's ** History of the County Dublin," p. 569, 
and " King James' Irish Army List," p. 190 ; Fiants, Henry VIII. and Edward 
VI., passim; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1509-1573, pp. 121, 132; Will of 
Simon Luttrell. 



8 PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



those who had taken pains in the cultivation of the Luttrellstown 
lands, and mentioning that he had given leases in one case because 
the tenant had long served his family, and in another because 
the tenant's house and goods had been burned. He married, the 
year before his death, a sister of one of his neighbours, Sir William 
Sarsfield, of Lucan — a lady remarkable for having no less than 
five husbands, of whom Luttrell was the second. By her he had 
a posthumous son, who only lived three years (}), 

On the death of this infant Luttrellstown passed to the Chief 
Justice's third son, Simon Luttrell, from whom the subsequent 
owners were descended. Of his three younger brothers the eldest, 
Robert, settled at Tankardstown, in the County Meath ; the second, 
John, who died in 1620 and was buried at Clonsilla, resided 
at a place called Killeigh; and the third, Walter, matricu- 
lated in 1572 at Oxford University. Simon Luttrell was only a 
youth at the time of his father's death, and six years after he 
succeeded to Luttrellstown, in 1566, he entered Lincoln's Inn as a 
student. He soon settled down to the duties of his position, and 
we find him acting as a Commissioner for the muster of the militia 
and sending two archers to the hosting against Shane O'Neill, and 
three to the hosting at Tara Hill. He was twice married, his first 
wife being a Miss Gaydon, and his second, who survived him, being 
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Finglas. Besides his eldest son 
Thomas, he left several children, including a daughter, who married 
Nicholas FitzSimons of Baldoyle, and a son Nicholas, who died 
in 1610. In the previous year the latter made a will in 
which he mentioned that he had intended " to apply his study 
towards Oxford, then after to the Inns of Court," but that through 
want of means " he had altered his course " and intended to go into 
other countries " where he might attain the faculty of physic " (2). 

Luttrellstown was then considered one of the principal castles in 
the County Dublin. It had been, no doubt, enlarged several times, 
and in his will Simon Luttrell, when directing that for some years 

(^) Fianta Philip and Mary, Nos. 75, 177, 260 ; Haliday Manuscripts published 
by Historical Manuscripts Commission, p. 14; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. 
Dublin, Elizabeth, No. 237, in which James Luttrell's will is given; Chancery 
Inquisition, Co. Meath, Elizabeth, No. 4 ; Journal of County KU£ire Archceolog%cnl 
Society, vol. iv., p. 117. 

(*) Funeral Entries; Will of John Luttrell; Foster's " Alumni Oxonienses"; 
Lincoln's Inn Admissions ; Haliday Manuscripts, p. 162, published by Historical 
Manuscripts Commission ; Manuscript in Trinity College Library, F. 1, 18, p. 177 ; 
Fiants Elizabeth, passim ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1574-1686, p. 286 ; 
Wills of Simon and Nicholas Luttrell. 



luttrellStown and its CaStle. 9 

the timber at Luttrellstown should not be cut, excepts such as 
should be required for the building, as well as the expense of the 
house. In his son's time we read of the great gallery furnished 
with cupboards and iron-bound chests in which the family papers 
were kept, and of the dining room with its tapestry hangings. 
There was then a mill in full working order on the lands, and at 
least one other house of considerable size besides the castle, within 
the parish of Clonsilla. This house was occupied by a first cousin 
of the Chief Justice's, Nicholas Luttrell, who appears from his 
will, made in 1568, to have been a man of good position, possessed 
of flocks and herds and much household goods, including plate, 
which he divided amongst a somewhat numerous family (i). 

The next owner of Luttrellstown, Thomas Luttrell, the eldest son 
of Simon Luttrell, was returned in 1613, with his relative Sir 
Christopher Plunkett of Dunsoghly, as Knight of the shire for the 





. J^m 




1 




K, 


i 

1^ 




^ 


4 


^ — ^ . ^ — ^^ — — -1 



The Devil's Mill near Luttrellstown in 1795* 

Front a drawing hy Jonathan Fisher. 

County Dublin, and took a prominent part in public affairs as one 
of the leaders of the Roman Catholic party in the House of 



(^) Calendar of Carew State Papers, 1589-1600, p. 188 ; " Description of Ireland 
in 1598," edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, pp. 37, 39 ; Will of Nicholas Luttrell. 



10 PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



Commons. He was one of those who in 1605 signed the petition 
from the Roman Catholic lords and gentlemen of the Pale, and 
his action at that time led to his confinement in Dublin Castle, 
and to a recommendation from the Lord Deputy that on account 
of his obstinacy in refusing to make any acknowledgment of wrong 
doings he should be sent into England. He was foremost in the 
contest for the Speaker's Chair in 1613, and was one of those who 
went on the Roman Catholic deputation to James I. He had 
incurred the bitter enmity of Lord Deputy Chichester, and owing 
to the allegations which the Lord Deputy made against him was 
thrown into the Fleet Prison in London and kept a prisoner for 
eleven weeks. The rapid changes of that time soon brought him 
into favour again. In 1627 he was returned as one of the men of 
fair estate in the English Pale who were fit to be placed in 
command of a troop of horse, and in 1634 he was again elected 
as one of the representatives of the County Dublin, and was present 
at the opening of Strafford's first parliament. A few months after 
that event, in November 1634, he departed this mortal life, as a 
funeral entry informs us, and after a considerable interval 
necessary for the preparation of a stately funeral was interred in 
Clonsilla Church. 

Thomas Luttrell was twice married, his first wife being Eleanor, 
daughter of John Cheevers, by whom he had two sons, Simon and 
Stephen; and his second wife being Alison, daughter of Nicholas, 
twenty-first Baron of Howth, by whom he had also two sons, John 
and Thomas. Besides sons he had a number of daughters, one of 
whom married William, third Viscount Fitzwilliam, of Merrion. 
Another married Walter Goulding, His provision for his second 
wife, who survived him, and for his children, indicates that the 
wealth of the Luttrells had not decreased in his hands. To his 
widow he left, in addition to her jointure, Diswellstown, in the 
parish of Castleknock, as a dower house; and besides much plate 
and household stuff he bequeathed to her twenty great cows 
with their calves, three hundred sheep, six rams of the English 
breed, and fifteen farm horses, as well as her riding horse and 
three horses to carry the servants in attendance upon her. His 
eldest son, to whom he bequeathed his signet ring and gold chain, 
besides his furniture and the greater portion of his plate, succeeded 
under settlement to all his lands, but in consideration of the 
fatherly love and affection which he bore to his younger children 



luttrellStown and its Castle. 11 



he had laid up for them in the iron-bound chests in the gallery of 
Luttrellstown a great store of silver and gold, out of which they 
were to be paid substantial legacies in current English money (i). 

Troublous times fell to the lot of his eldest son, Simon Luttrell, 
who succeeded him, and who lived to see Ireland under the rule 
of the Parliament. He was thirty-four years of age when his 
father died, and had maintained the traditions of his family by 
his marriage to Mary, daughter of Jenico, fifth Viscount 
Gormanston, the widow of one of the Luttrell's near neighbours, 
Sir Thomas Allen of St. Wolstan's. In 1643 he was returned to 
the dying Irish parliament at a by-election as member for the 
borough of Navan, and in the following year he waited upon 
Charles I. at Oxford. Two years later, in 1646, he entertained 
the Marquis of Clanricarde at Luttrellstown, while the Marquis 
was carrying on the negotiations between Ormonde and General 
Preston, who had advanced as far as Lucan with the army of the 
Confederates. His death took place about 1650, and he left 
several children, including his heir, Thomas Luttrell, but it was 
some time before the latter enjoyed the estates to which he had 
succeeded (2). 

Luttrellstown was too attractive a possession to escape the eyes 
of the new rulers of Ireland, and was quickly seized upon as a 
country residence, like Monkstown by Edmund Ludlow, by one of 
the authorities of the Parliament, Colonel John Hewson, who had 
been appointed Governor of Dublin. Hewson, once an honest 
shoemaker in Westminster, had served in the Parliament army 
from the beginning of the Civil War, and was one of the most 
unrelenting of the regicides. He had come to Ireland with 
Cromwell, under whom he commanded a foot regiment, and was 
subsequently employed in the civil government of this country. 
He occupied a seat in the House of Commons, for some time as 
representative of Dublin, and was called by Cromwell, who con- 



(^) Return of Members of Parliament; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1603- 
1606, and 161 1-1614, jxissim ; 1626-1660, p. 100, 1633-1647, p. 63 ; Funeral Entry ; 
Wills of Thomas Luttrell. 

(*) Chancery Inquisition, Co. Meath, Car. L, No. 101 ; Lodge's Peerage, voi. 
iii., p. 410 ; Return of Members of Parliament ; Ormonde Manuscripts, new series, 
vol. i., p. 74, published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; Calendar of Irish 
State Papers, 1633-1647, p. 549 ; Communia Boll. 



12 pabiSh of clonsilla. 



ferred on him knighthood, to his House of Lords. Hewson was 
at first given Luttrellstown on lease, but in 1659 he was granted 
it in fee farm, together with an immense extent of lands in the 
County Dublin, estimated to comprise nearly 7,000 acres. He 
spent much of that year in England, and at the time of the 
Restoration, when Hewson was obliged to fly to the Continent, Sir 
William Bury appears to have been in temporary occupation of 
Luttrellstown. Sir William Bury, who belonged to a Lincolnshire 
family of that name, came over to Ireland as a member of Henry 
Cromweirs privy council, but continued to serve after the Restora- 
tion for a time, and is remarkable for having received the honour 
of knighthood both from Henry Cromwell and from the Lords 
Justices appointed by Charles II. (i). 

At that time Luttrellstown is described as a great mansion 
house with twelve chimneys, surrounded by offices, and having near 
it a malt house, a barn, and two stables. All the buildings were 
slated, and the exceptional value of £1,000 placed upon them 
shows their large extent. Besides pleasure-grounds and ornamental 
plantations there were in the demesne a garden and no less than 
three orchards for the provision of the house, and two quarries 
for the supply of stone. There were also attached to the house 
a corn mill and a cloth mill, as well as a weir for catching salmon 
on the Liffey. In the grange of Clonsilla there were a thatched 
house with offices, and another mill surrounded by an orchard 
and grove of ash trees, and upon the other lands belonging to the 
Luttrells a second thatched house of smaller size and about twelve 
cottages. The only lands in the parish of Clonsilla which did not 
belong to the Luttrells were those of Coolmine, and Hartstown and 
Castaheany. The lands of Coolmine, which after the dissolution <f 
St. Mary's Abbey, had been successively granted to Walter Peppard 
and the Earl of Thomond, had before 1641 come into the possession 
of Sir Edward Bolton, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and on 
them were stated to be a thatched house with two stone chimneys, 
besides a barn, a stable, and several small cottages. The lands 
of Hartstown and Castaheany belonged to the Barnewall family, 
and on them there was no building. Shortly before the Restora- 
tion the population of the parish was returned as forty-two persons 



(^) Crown Rentals; Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxvi., p. 311; 
Census of 1659; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1647-1662, paaaim; Notes and 
Queries, Ser. 8, vol. iv., pp. 36, 461 : vol. v., p. 136. 



LUTTRELLSTOWN AND ITS CASTLE. 13 

of English birth and eighty-seven of Irish, the principal inhabitants 
besides Sir William Bury being Richard Broughall, who lived in 
the Grange, and James Russell, who lived on the lands of 
Coolmine (}). 

During the Commonwealth the Luttrells resided in Dublin, and 
before the Restoration Thomas Luttrell married a lady belonging 
to a very old Dublin family, Barbara, daughter of Henry Sedgrave, 
of Cabra, by whom he had three sons, Simon, Henry, and Thomas. 
Owing to the influence of the DuKte of Ormonde, whose friend- 
ship the Luttrells enjoyed, Thomas Luttrell was one of those 
mentioned by name in the Act of Settlement as deserving of 
restoration to his estates, and in 1663 the Commissioners of 
Settlement directed that he should be placed in possession of them. 
At the same time the widow of his grandfather, Thomas Luttrell, 
the Knight of the shire for the County Dublin, who stated that 
she had been a great sufiFerer by the Rebellion, and that she had 
maintained her husband's younger children with motherly care, 
proved herself an innocent Roman Catholic, as did also her son 
Thomas, the only surviving son of her husband, who mentioned 
that he had been partly educated in England, and who settled in 
the County Westmeath. Some years later the owner of Luttrells- 
town took part in a remarkable duel, in which the principals 
escaped without hurt but the seconds sustained serious injury. 
Not long before his death, which took place in 1673, his son Simon 
was in the matrimonial market, and an agent of the Legge family, 
who was on terms of intimacy with the elder Thomas Luttrell, the 
uncle of the owner of Luttrellstown, tried to arrange a match 
between Simon Luttrell and a Miss Legge — the only blot on the 
Luttrell escutcheon, in the opinion of this match-maker, being the 
religion of the family (2). 

Colonel Simon Luttrell was a man of handsome stature at the 
time he entered into possession of his ancestral estates, and 
although the match with Miss Legge had not taken place he had 
found a wife in Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Newcomen 



(>) Civil Survey of Barony of Castleknock; Book of Survey and Distribution; 
Fiant, Henry VIII., No. 446. 

(*) Pedigree in Ulster's Office ; Rolls of Innocents, i. m. 27 and 67, vi. m. 
4 and 24 ; Wills of Stephen and Thomas Luttrell, and of Dame Mary Allen ; 
Manuscripts of J. M. Heathcote, p. 170, and Dartmouth Manuscripts, vol. iii., 
p. 115, published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; Chancery Inquisition, 
Co. DubUn, Jas. U., No. 34. 



14 PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



of Sutton. Her mother was a sister of Richard Talbot, Earl of 
Tyrconnel (i), but Miss Newcomen had been brought up as a 
Protestant, and the marriage was celebrated first by a clergyman 
of the Established Church, although subsequently by the Roman 
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Colonel Simon Luttrell appears 
for many years to have suffered from ill health. In a letter written 
by him in London on Christmas Eve, 1688, to the young Duke 
of Ormonde, he states that he had been sick for ten years, and 
had symptoms of paralysis. He had not been in Ireland for 
eighteen months, and on the strength of the friendship shown his 
father by the Duke's father and grandfather, begged the Duke to 
obtain license for him to go abroad, where he said he desired to be 
out of the way until things should come to a settlement, and where, 
if his health permitted, he would seek military employment. Not 
many months later he threw in his lot with James II., and in 
September, 1689, we find him in Dublin, of which he had been 
appointed Governor, busily preparing the city against the danger 
of invasion, and " chaining up the streets and making breastworks 
in order to secure that naked place." He raised a regiment of 
dragoons for James, and was appointed by the latter Lord 
Lieutenant of the County Dublin, which he represented in James' 
parliament, as well as a privy councillor. He appears to have gone 
to France before the battle of the Boyne, but returned to Ireland 
for a short time during the siege of Limerick. He died abroad 
in 1698. His widow survived him until 1704, and the year before 
her death married as his second wife the father of the eccentric 
Thomas Amory, the author of the " Life of John Buncle, Esq." (2). 

To Colonel Simon Luttrell's confiscated estates and possessions 
his brother. Colonel Henry Luttrell, whose life, both public and 
private, brought his family into great disrepute, succeeded. 
Colonel Henry Luttrell appears to have passed his early life in 
France, where in 1684 we find him taking part in a quarrel, 
resulting in no less than three duels, in which he was wounded, 
and another of the combatants. Lord Purbecke, was killed. He 



(^) A tombstone in Clonsilla Churchyard bears the following inscription : 
** Here Lyeth ye Body of Frances Lady Newcomen, Wife to Sr. Thomas Newcomen 
of Sutton & Daughter to Sir William" Talbot of Cartown Barronet, who deceased 
Feb. ye 17 1687." 

(2) Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiv., p. 301 ; Calendar of Do- 
mestic State Papers, 1673, pp. 247, 251 ; 1673-1675, p. 349 ; 1689-1690, pp. 141, 
279, 305 ; Letter in possession of the Marquis of Ormonde ; Petitions respecting 
Irish Forfeitures in the Bodleian Library, Rawl MS., A. 253, f. 393. 



LUTTRELLSTOWN AND ITS CASTLE. 



15 



returned to Ireland in the service of James II., bringing back to 
his native country, in the words of Lord Macaulay, a sharpened 
intellect and polished manners, a flattering tongue, some skill in 
war, and much more skill in intrigue. At first his efforts for 
James II., in whose army he commanded a troop of horse, are said 
to have been whole hearted, but with that monarch's falling 
fortunes his skill in intrigue began to assert itself. At Aughrim 
his defection is said to have contributed to the defeat of James's 
army, and during the siege of Limerick he was discovered in 
correspondence with the besiegers, and is said to have been 
condemned to be shot. On the surrender of Limerick he went over 
openly to King William, and was active in inducing Irish soldiers 




Colonel Henry Luttrell. 

From a woodpnnt in Cox^a Irish Magazine. 

to join the winning side or to enlist in foreign service. Besides 
his ancestral estates a pension is said to have been given him, and 
he was made a major-general in the Dutch service. 

He did not behave well with regard to the jointure to which his 
brother's widow was entitled. A letter from him written in 1699 
to a Minister of State is still extant, in which, after mentioning 
that his sister-in-law had come to England, he begs that steps may 
be taken to prevent her going into Ireland, and that in case she 
should give him trouble by her attorney he may be permitted to 
put in force the Act of Attainder against her. Subsequently she 



16 PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 

was enabled to take legal proceedings against him, and in a 
statement of her case by her second husband, Thomas Amory, 
there were allegations of conduct on the part of her brother-in-law 
not at all to his credit. Colonel Henry Luttrell seems still to 
have professed to be a Roman Catholic, and a quarrel between 
him and Lady Eustace, a sister of Colonel Simon Luttrell's wife, 
is said, by Archbishop King writing in 1699, to have created two 
very furious parties amongst Roman Catholics. Intrigue on his 
part was not confined to public affairs, and whether the assassin 
to whom his death was due was actuated by political or private 
motives is open to doubt, although the Irish parliament and the 
publisher of an elegy on his death attributed his murder to the 
former. The deed was done at night in October, 1717, near 
Colonel Henry Luttrell's town house in Stafford Street, while he 
was sitting in a hackney chair in which he had returned from a 
coffee house on Cork Hill, and although enormous rewards were 
offered and two persons were arrested the assassin was never dis- 
covered. Colonel Henry Luttrell had married late in life a Welsh 
lady, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Jones, of Halkin, in Flint- 
shire, and granddaughter of Sir Simon Clarke, a friend of 
Dugdale the historian. He left two sons, Robert and Simon. In 
a will made on his deathbed, for he survived the fatal shot a few 
hours, he committed the care of his sons to his widow and Lord 
Cadogan, Lord Gowran, and Sir William Strickland, and mentions 
an unmarried sister, a married sister Mrs. Slingsby (i), and a 
niece Mrs. Delamar. He appears to have died a Protestant, and 
his sons were educated in England in that faith. The eldest, 
Robert, went to travel abroad in 1727, and owing to his premature 
death a short time afterwards, the second, Simon, succeeded to the 
estates of the Luttrell family (2). 



(*) A stone at the east end of CJlonsilla Church bears this inscription : — "I.H.S. 
This Stone & Burial Place belong to Mr. Simon Slingsby of the City of Dublin 
Merchant & his Posterity. Here lieth the Body of the above Simon Slingsby who 
departed this life the 29 of December 1747 aged 57. Here also lyeth the Body of his 
Mother Alice Slingsby alias Finglaswho departed this life December the 19th 1717 
aged 70. Here also lieth the Body of his Father Francis Slingsby Esq. who departed 
this life February the 9th 1719 aged 71." Colonel Henry Luttrell mentions in his 
will, besides his sister Mrs. Slingsby (who apparently had been previously married 
to a Mr. Finglas, and only survived her brother two months), bis nephew Simon 
Slingsby. 

(*) Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiv., p. 297 ; Historical Manu- 
scripts Commission, 2nd Report, App., p. 233, 7th Report, App., p. 302 ; His- 
torical Collections on Ireland in British Museum, Add MS., 21, J 36, f. 59; Irish 
Builder for 1885, p. 197 ; Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. i., p. 63 ; Wills of 
Colonel Henry Luttrell and his son Robert. 



LUTTRELL8T0WN AND ITS CASTLE. 17 

From Colonel Henry Luttrell's time a cloud of evil tradition 
and unpopularity has hung over the Luttrells, and probably the 
frailties of no family have ever been more fully chronicled than 
those of the Luttrells in the eighteenth century. This arose not 
only from the detestation in which Colonel Henry Luttrell's memory 
was held by the Jacobites, but also from the famous contest between 
his grandson and Wilkes for the representation of Middlesex, 
which brought the family under the lash of the terrible author of 
the Letters of Junius. The hatred felt towards them in Ireland 
is shown by legends which linger round a place at Luttrellstown 
called the Devil's Mill. According to some of these the name 
commemorates a mill which was erected by Satanic agency for 
Colonel Henry Luttrell, who invoked the aid of Satan, but by 
outwitting him was successful in escaping with his life; while 
another legend attributes the name to the opposition offered by 
Satan to the erection of a mill in the place. The part taken by 
Colonel Henry Luttrell's grandson, the second Lord Carhampton, 
in suppressing the rebellion of 1798, occasioned a fresh outbreak 
of hostility against the family, and it is said that at that time the 
grave of Colonel Henry Luttrell in Clonsilla Churchyard was 
opened and his skull smashed. 

Simon Luttrell, who was created Baron Irnham and Earl of 
Carhampton, titles which he took from property belonging to the 
English Luttrells, and who became father-in-law of George the 
Third's brother the Duke of Cumberland, attained to a great 
position, but his public life was passed in England, and relates 
to the history of that country. His establishing his principal 
residence in England is said to have been due to a desire to escape 
from his unpopularity in this country, but it is probable that it 
was in part due to the wider field for political life and to his 
marriage to an English lady, a daughter of Sir Nicholas Lawes, 
sometime Governor of Jamaica. This lady brought to him addi- 
tional wealth, including property hi the country of which her 
father had been Governor, and it was not long after his marriage 
to her that he purchased, in 1744, a handsome seat in Warwick- 
shire known as Four Oaks. Ten years later he was returned to 
Parliament as member for the borough of Michael, in Cornwall, 
and became a strenuous supporter of the Duke of Newcastle, and 
subsequently of the Earl of Bute. While sitting for Michael 
he entered upon a long and arduous contest for the borough of 
Wigan, in Lancashire. In a number of letters written from 

G 



18 PARISH OF CLONSILLA. 



Four Oaks, and his London house in South Audley Street, to the 
Duke of Newcastle, Luttrell describes the efforts made by him and 
his brother candidate to secure the corporation of Wigan, with 
whom the result rested, and the Duke of Newcastle, in reply to 
one of these letters, acknowledged the great obligations the 
Government were under to Mr. Luttrell for the part he had 
taken, and expressed a high sense of the value of his friendship. 
Luttrell's candidature was crowned with success, and he was 




Henry Lawes, 2nd Earl of Carhampton. 

From a portrait by Hugh D. Hamilton in the National Gallery of Ireland. 

returned in 1761 for Wigan, which he represented until 1768, 
when he was returned for Weobley, in Hereford. In the latter 
year he was created Baron Irnham, but as an Irish peer, and thus 
was not deprived of his seat in the English House of Commons. 

A year later the contest between Wilkes and his eldest son took 
place, but the vituperation to which he and Eis son were exposed 
only stimulated Lord Irnham to further political exertion, and 
at the General Election of 1774 he was returned to Parliament 
(as member for the borough of Stockbridge, in Hampshire), 
together with no less than three of his sons. A viscounty in 1780 
and an earldom in 1785 under the title of Carhampton were 
only fitting rewards for such devotion to his party. Towards the 



LUTTRELLSTOWN AND ITS CASTLE. 19 

close of his life Lord Carhampton refiumed his residence at 
Luttrellstown. He became then a constant attendant in the Irish 
House of Lords, of which his contemporary, Francis Hardy, Lord 
Charlemont's biographer, says he was for many years a distin- 
guished member. In the opinion of Hardy the accounts which 
political writers of that day published with regard to Lord Car- 
hampton ought to be regarded, almost without exception, as the 
mere fabrications of party, and in the social relations of life Hardy 
speaks of him as an agreeable companion, brilliant conversation- 
alist and excellent scholar. Lord Carhampton, who died in 1787, 
and was buried at Kingsbury, in Warwickshire, was succeeded by 
his eldest son, the well-known Henry Lawes, second Earl of Car- 
hampton, who exhibited in his life many of the failings of his 
grandfather, Colonel Henry Luttrell (i). 

Luttrellstown was visited by Arthur Young on his visit to 
Ireland in 1776, and that indefatigable inquirer gives a long 
account of the system of cultivation pursued under the direction 
of the first Lord Carhampton and his eldest son, which, he says, 
had added greatly to the beauties of the place (2). During the 
second Lord Carhampton's time, in 1790, a race for a sweepstakes 
of X500 was run in Luttrellstown Park, in the presence of the 
Lord Lieutenant and the Lord Chancellor, and was won by a 
horse belonging to the Chancellor's brother-in-law, Thomas Whaley, 
better known as Jerusalem Whaley (3). Soon after the Rebellion the 
second Lord Carhampton (4) sold Luttrellstown to Mr. Luke White, 
ancestor of the present owner, Lord Annaly. Mr. White changed 
the name to that of Woodlands, which the place bore until a few 
years ago, when the name of Luttrellstown began to be again 
used. In the beginning of the last century it was considered one 
of the principal show places in the neighbourhood of Dublin, and 
was visited by the writers of many of the tours in Ireland published 
during that period (5). 

(1) See, for a fuller account of the first Earl of Carhampton and his family, 
•• The Luttrells of Four Oaks," by the Rev. W. K. R. Bedford ; also c/. D' Alton's 
** History of the County Dublin,'* p. 573 ; Return of Members of Parliament ; 
Newcastle Correspondence and Fragments of Letters (MS. 5726D, f. 226) in British 
Museum ; Will of Simon Earl of Carhampton ; Hardy's " Memoirs of James, 
Earl of Charlemont," vol. i., pp. 262-266. 

(^) Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland edited by A. W. Hutton, vol. i., pp. 21-24. 

{^) Exshaw' 8 Magazine for lldOyji. 16S. 

{*) See notice of bim in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiv., p. 297. 

(*) See Archer's "Survey of the County Dublin," p. 107 ;" Dutton's " Observa- 
tions on Mr. Archer's Survey," p. 125 ; An Englishman's " Tour in Ireland in 
1813 and 1814," p. 168; " Excursion to Ireland, by the Deputy Governor of 
the Irish Society in 1825," p. 26; Prince Puckler Muskau's "Tour in England, 
Ireland, and France," vol. i., p. 167. 

C 2 



20 PABISH OF CLONSILLA. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The church of Coolmine, which had disappeared before the 
sixteenth century, appears to have been originally the most 
important place of worship in the parish of Clonsilla. It was 
founded by St. Machutus, and is mentioned in the time of Arch- 
bishop Henry de Loundres, who held the see of Dublin from 1212 
to 1228, as one of the churches in his gift. That prelate, how- 
ever, consecrated for the Priory of Little Malvern, already men- 
tioned as owning land in this parish, another church, the site of 
which is now occupied by the present church of Clonsilla. It 
completely superseded the church of Coolmine, and we find, in 
1419, the Prior of Little Malvern, who pleaded royal license for 
absence, sued as its rector for non-residence. It was made over 
in 1486 to St. Mary's Abbey, under the name of the White 
Chapel of St. Machutus of Clonsilla, and, after the 
dissolution of the religious houses, in a lease to Sir Thomas 
Cusack of the tithe corn belonging to the church of Coolmine, two 
couples for the curate of Clonsilla are excepted. At that time 
the Luttrells had a chaplain of their own, Thomas Fleming, whom 
they presented to the living of Donabate, of which they held the 
advowson. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century we find con- 
tradictory accounts of the condition of the church ; in 1615 it 
is stated to have been in good repair, but in 1630 to have been 
ruinous. Archbishop Bulkeley mentions at the latter time that 
Mr. Luttrell held the tithes, and that under his protection there 
was a Roman Catholic schoolmaster teaching in the parish. Clon- 
silla was then served by the curate of Castleknock parish, to 
which it continued to be united until the disestablishment of the 
Church of Ireland. Towards the close of the eighteenth century 
Austin Cooper visited Clonsilla. He describes the church as a 
small, plain, but neat building, and says there was an old building, 
low and arched over, adjoining it, which was entered by a door 
from the chancel. Although he found no inscription upon it he 
thought it must have been the burial place of some family, and 
it was doubtless the building erected in compliance with the direc- 
tion in Chief Justice Luttrell's will. Besides the tomb — a raised 
one — to the Slingsby family. Cooper mentions a flat stone to 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 21 

the memory of Richard FitzSimons of Clonsilla, who died 
5 October, 1736, aged 77, and of his son the Most Rev. Patrick 
FitzSimons, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, who died 
25 November, 1769, aged 74 ; as well as a flat stone to the memory 
of Anthony Flanagan, of Clonsilla (i). The church then in exist- 
ence is said to have been erected by the first Lord Carhampton, 
and tradition says that the chancel was surrounded by four square 
pews, which were used by the principal members of the congrega- 
tion. The present church was built in the time of Archbishop 
Whately. It is a substantial building with a small chancel, and a 
tower in which hangs a bell formerly belonging to St. Werburgh^s 
Church in Dublin (2). 



(M Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 58 ; "Crede Mihi," edited 
by Sir John Gilbert, p. 138 ; Liber Niger, p. 588 ; D' Alton's " History of the 
County Dublin," p. 574 ; Fiants Henry VIII., No. 473, Eliz., No. 943 ; Regal 
Visitation of 1615 ; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 156 ; Cooper's Note Book. 

(-) The bell bears the following inscription: — " St. Werburg, Dublin, the gift 
of James Southwell; John Blachford, D.D., Rec. ; R. Dalton, Wm. Braddall, 
Ch. Wardsns ; 1747." 



22 PARISH OF LEIXLIP. 



Part of Parish of Leixlip 

(t.g., Lax-hlaup or salmon leap). 



-♦- 



The following townlands are included in the portion of Ticixlip parish within the 
County Dublin : — Allenswood, Coldblow, Laragheon [t.g., the house-site of 
the hound], Pass-if-you-can, St. Catherine's Park, and Westmanstown. 

The only object of antiquarian interest is a ruined chapel, close to which there is 
a well known as St. Catherine's Well. 

There is also a well known as Sunday Well in the townland of Laragheon. 



ST. CATHERINES PARK. 

St. Catherine's Park is the principal denomination in a small 
portion of the parish of Leixlip which is included in the County 
Dublin, and which adjoins on the east the parishes of Clonsilla 
and Lucan. All that now remains to mark the former importance 
of St. Catherine's Park are the walls of a chapel, thickly^ covered 
with modern plaster, which stand upon the northern bank of the 
River Liffey close to the boundary of the County Kildare. 

The name comes from a Priory of Canons of the Order of St. 
Victor, which was established on the lands, under the invocation 
of St. Catherine, not long after the Anglo-Norman invasion, when 
the lands belonged to the then owners of Lucan, a family called 
Peche, by whom they were granted to the Priory, together with 
other lands and various privileges. The priory house was 
built on each side of a small stream, which falls into the 
Liffey near the ruined chapel, and must have been a picturesque 
object with the rivulet flowing through its Gothic court. There 
was a ford called Athlouan across the Liffey under the priory 
house, and the Canons had the right of common pasture and of 
obtaining wood in the Peches' preserves, as well as liberty to 
maintain a mill and a weir on the Liffey. Amongst the Priors 
we find William of Kill, John Warisius, and Richard Shirman, 
and amongst the chief benefactors of the Priory were Wirris de 
Peche, Lord of Lucan, and Sir Adam de Hereford, Lord of 
Leixlip, each of whom left an endowment to maintain six chaplains 
to pray in the Priory for th'e members of their families. 



ST. Catherine's park. 23 



Early in the fourteenth century the Priory, then valued for 
a small sum, fell into poverty, and was so oppressed with debt 
that in the year 1323 Richard Tumour, who was then Prior, and 
the Canons obtained royal license to assign the Priory and all 
its possessions to the Abbey of St. Thomas in Dublin. It remained 
in the possession of the monks of the latter house, by some of whom 
it was doubtless always occupied, until the dissolution of the 
religious houses (i). After that event the priory house and 
lands were leased in 1541 to Thomas Allen, Chamberlain of the 
Exchequer. He was a brother of Sir John Allen, then Chancellor 
of Ireland, who was given at the same time a grant of the neigh- 
bouring monastery of St. Wolstan's, and was a first cousin of the 
unfortunate Archbishop of that name who had been murdered a 
few years before. On the expiration of Thomas Allen's lease, in 
1561, the priory house and lands were leased to one George 
Staynings (2), and some years later, in 1569, were granted by the 
Crown to the most eminent personage among their many owners. 

The Right Hon. Sir Nicholas White, Master of the Rolls in 
Ireland, as this owner of St. Catherine's ultimately became, 
occupied, for a native of Ireland in the sixteenth century, a 
position of unusual importance in the government of his country. 
In his voluminous correspondence preserved in the State Papers 
there is evidence that he influenced, for a time at any rate, the 
policy of English statesmen as regards Ireland, and enjoyed the con- 
fidence of Elizabeth and of Lord Burghley. He was, in the opinion 
of Sir Henry Sidney, before prejudice warped that Lord Deputy's 
judgment, a most wise, honourable, and faithful friend to English 
rule, as well as a man of resource and courage and of great ability 
as a lawyer ; and so far as his own religious opinions were concerned, 
Queen Elizabeth's ministers could find no fault in him. But 
although he himself accepted unreservedly the teaching of the 
reformed church, he was lenient to those who differed from him 
and by his advocacy of toleration in religion incurred the 
suspicion and obloquy which ended in his downfall. Nicholas 
White appears to have been the son of James White, who was 
steward of the household to James, ninth Earl of Ormonde, and 
who was poisoned in October 1546, with his master in London. 

{^) Archdall's "Monasticon Hibernicum," p. 254 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 1252- 
1284, No. 842, 1293-1301, pp. 139, 2S0, 1302-1307, p. 240. 

(*) Fiants Henry VIH., No. 245; Elizabeth, No. 390; Journal of the County 
KUdare ArcJiceological Societt/, vol. iv., p. 100. 



24 PARISH OF LEIXLIP. 



In a codicil to his will made on his death-bed the Earl left 
Nicholas White a legacy to assist him in entering the Inns of 
Court, and expressed the hope that he would serve his son as his 
father had served him; but this White does not appear to have 
done, although he suffered on more than one occasion from being 
considered a creature of the Ormonde family. In 1552 he entered 
Lincoln's Inn as a law student, and seven years later was returned, 
in right of property inherited from his father, as Knight of the 
shire for the County Kilkenny. 

His advance in life was thenceforward rapid. In 1563 he became 
a justice of the peace for Kilkenny, in 1564 recorder of Water- 
ford, and in 1566 a member of the Munster Council. At that 
time he appears to have been known to Lord Burghley, and two 
years later we find him in London, where he was received by the 
Queen, and appointed seneschal of Wexford — an appointment 
which did not meet with the approval of Sir Henry Sidney, 
although all he could allege against White was that he was not 
fit for military service. Subsequently " the Cell of St. Catherine's," 
together with the manor of Leixlip, was granted to him, and the 
Lord Deputy was desired to admit him to the privy council. On 
his way back from London in February, 1569, he stopped at 
Tutbury, ostensibly to interview the Earl of Shrewsbury about 
the County Wexford, but really to see the Earl's far-famed 
captive Mary Queen of Scots. Of his interview with the 
Queen he sent a quaint account in a long letter to his 
friend. Lord Burghley, and tells how the Queen of Scots, 
understanding that a " servant of the Queen's Majesty of some 
credit " was in the house, came to the presence chamber and 
'* fell in talk with him." He did not spare her feelings, according 
to his own account, telling her that the troubles of Ireland were 
then largely due to the Scottish people, that persons like himself 
thought she had good cause to consider herself princely entertained 
rather than hardly restrained, and, on her entering into " a pretty 
disputable comparison " between carving, painting and needlework, 
of which she considered painting the most commendable accom- 
plishment, that he had heard " pictura to be Veritas falsa.^* With 
this " she closed up the talk and retired into her privy chamber," 
at which we can hardly feel surprised. Having satisfied his own 
curiosity, White, whose visit it may be remarked did not meet with 
approval from Elizabeth's ministers when they heard of it, went 
on to advise that others should not be allowed to have access to 



ST. CATHERINE S PARK. 



25 



Mary. Her beauty was not comparable, he said, to that of his 
own sovereign, to whose charms he had fallen a ready victim, 
still he was forced to admit that Mary had " an alluring grace, a 
pretty Scottish speech, and a searching wit clouded with mildness," 
which might attract some persons. 

From the time White acquired St. Catherine's Priory it became 
his principal residence, and when the plague visited Dublin he 
found it a very useful retreat. Like Chief Justice Luttrell he was, 
to use his own words, a great housekeeper, and expended on 
hospitality not less than a thousand marks a year. In 1571 he 
decided to visit England again, and after some delay set out 
with strong testimony of good service from Sir William Fitzwilliam, 
who had succeeded Sir Henry Sidney as chief governor, and from 
Lord Chancellor Weston, who appears to have been a great friend 




St. Catherine's Chapel. 

Frcym a photograph by Mr. Thomas Mason, 

of his. While he was in England the Master of the Rolls in 
Ireland died, and White was successful in obtaining the vacant 
oflfice, although he does not appear to have been recommended for 
it by Sir William Fitzwilliam, who was urging that he should be 



26 PARISH OF LEIXLIP. 



sent back to Ireland, as his advice was much needed on the council. 
In White's letter of appointment, Elizabeth, after referring to the 
services of his predecessor, and expressing a pious hope that he had 
won a better state by exchange of this worldly life, said she 
conferred the office upon White on account of her own knowledge 
of his sufficiency, but did not omit to put in a sly reminder of Sir 
William Fitzwilliam's own esteem for him as a councillor. 

After his appointment we find White standing much on the 
dignity of his office, applying for a guard of six soldiers to attend 
upon him, and asserting his right to discharge certain functions 
during a vacancy in the office of Lord Chancellor. The latter 
claim brought him in conflict with Archbishop Loftus, who, 
according to White, had all the gain, while he had the pain of 
business, and at the same time Sir William Fitzwilliam conceived 
a great dislike to him. During the agitation against the cess in 
1578 this ill-will came to a head, and for two years White was 
suspended from his office, more, it is said, from dislike than from 
cause. Lord Burghley never lost confidence in him, as appears 
from a letter written by White "from his reclused cell of St. 
Catherine's ; " and on being allowed to go to England, White com- 
pletely reinstated himself. Soon after his return to Ireland in 
1580 he accompanied the military expedition under Sir William 
Pelham to the south of Ireland, and we find him at Cashel lying 
in the Star Chamber, as he calls the open air, and at Waterford 
gathering cockles on the sea shore, and filling his pockets with 
bread and cheese, which he had learned to like in England, on a 
man-of-war. At that time he was successful in settling several 
difficulties in this country, and is said to have been the author of 
the extraordinary trial by combat between the O'Conors in the 
yard of Dublin Castle, but everything he did received sinister 
interpretation in certain quarters. 

White's enemies in Ireland had been increased by the addition of 
Sir Henry Wallop, who while openly commending him called him 
in private a malicious hypocrite. By gifts of aqua vitce and other 
things he tried to prevent his friends in England being influenced 
by reports of this kind, and even carried on a correspondence with 
the Queen herself through a certain Mistress Blanche, who lived 
in Lord Burghley's house, but the constant accusations against him 
must have done him injury. The arrival in 1584 of Sir John 
Perrot as Lord Deputy promised well for him, as the Lord Deputy 



ST. CATHERINE'S PARK. 27 

conferred on him immediately, in Christ Church Cathedral, the 
honour of knighthood, but it proved most disastrous to him, as 
he followed the Lord Deputy in all he did, not, he says, from 
affection for the man, but on account of what he thought the 
success of his government. A few months after Sir John Perrot's 
arrival White secured the conviction of many malefactors in 
Leinster by " trial of their own nation," and displayed much 
bravery in advancing in discharge of his duties into the wilds of 
the County Wicklow, and Sir John Perrot subsequently employed 
him in all his proceedings with regard to Connaught. Needless to 
sav. when Sir William Fitzwilliam was sent over to replace Sir 
John Perrot, in 1589, the old enmity between him and White 
arose with fresh force, and in the following year, when charges 
were brought against Sir John Perrot, the Lord Deputy found 
little trouble in placing White under arrest. White was then in 
bad health and wrote piteous letters to Lord Burghley, who seems 
never to have quite lost confidence in him; but the tide was too 
strong for him. He was sent over to London, and at once placed 
under restraint first at Charing Cross, and afterwards under 
closer surveillance in the Dean of St. Paul's house. In the 
beginning of 1590 he was a prisoner in the Marshalsea, and was 
sent in March with Sir John Perrot to the Tower, where he was 
kept in the closest confinement. He appears to have undergone a 
trial in the Star Chamber, where he made at least one admission 
injurious to his friend. Sir John Perrot, and was in the end allowed 
to return to Ireland and restored to his office, although not to his 
seat on the Council. His health, however, never recovered from 
the effects of his long imprisonment, and his death took place in 
February, 1593. 

Sir Nicholas White, from whom the Whytes of Loughbrickland 
are descended, was twice married, first to a lady called Sherlock, 
and secondly, in 1587, to Mary, daughter of Andrew Brereton. 
This lady had been so unfortunate as to have previously married 
one Thomas Might, sometime Surveyor of the Victuals in Ireland, 
who was discovered to have a wife alive in England. After 
Sir Nicholas White's death she married Sir Thomas Hartpole, of 
Carlow. By his first wife Sir Nicholas White had, besides a 
daughter, three sons, Andrew, Thomas (who died before him in 
1588), and James, two of whom were educated at Cambridge. His 
daughter Mary was three times married, first to Robert Browne, 
who was murdered in the County Wexford while his father-in-law 



28 PARISH OF LfilXLlP. 



was seneschal of that county; secondly, to Christopher Darcy, of 
Flatten, and thirdly, to Nicholas St. Lawrence, twenty-first Baron 
Howth. Andrew White, who succeeded his father, entered 
Lincoln's Inn in 1578 as a barrister from FurnivaFs Inn, and three 
years later married Margaret, daughter of Fatrick Finglas, of 
Westpalstown, and step-daughter of Richard Netterville of Kil- 
sallaghan. In 1585 Andrew White was in London, and to his father's 
regret preferred " to exercise his legs at Court rather than to sit at 
study in Lincoln's Inn." He became a Roman Catholic, and was 
looked upon by Sir William Fitzwilliam, who took steps to prevent 
his approaching the Queen while his father was a prisoner, and 
by Archbishop Loftus, as a dangerous conspirator involved in 
plots emanating from Rome and Spain. After his father's death 
both Lord Burghley and his son, the first Lord Salisbury, took the 
most kindly interest in Andrew White's affairs, particularly with 
regard to the lands of Dunbrody, in the County Wexford, which he 
said was " the only stay his father's hard fortune had left him." 
Andrew White died while still a young man in 1599, and left a 
number of children, including his heir Nicholas, who restored the 
family to a high position — marrying Ursula, daughter of Garret, 
first Viscount Drogheda, and becoming a knight and representative 
in parliament for the County Kildare (i). 

Both Andrew White and his son. Sir Nicholas White the 
younger, resided in Leixlip Castle, and during the troubled times 
before the Commonwealth St. Catherine's was held on lease 
by Sir Robert Knight. At the time of the establishment of the 
Commonwealth, St. Catherine's was occupied by a Mr. John Dillon, 
who had in his employment most of the other fifteen inhabitants. 
In 1655 the Whites, '' owing to charges made upon their estate in 
the late disturbances," applied for leave to sell St. Catherine's, and 
on this being granted to them disposed of it to Alderman Ridgely 
Hatfield, who in 1656 was mayor of Dublin. After the Restora- 



(i) See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. Ixi., p. 68; also c/. Burke's 
Landed Gentry under Whytes of Loughbrickland ; Irish Builder for 1886, p. 
332 ; Admissions Lincoln's Inn ; Beturn of Members of Parliament ; Smjnbh s 
" Law Officers of Ireland " ; Metcalfe's " Book of Knights " ; Exchequer Inqui- 
sition, Co. Dublin, Elizabeth, No. 165 ; Wills of Sir Nicholas White and Andrew 
White ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1509-1608, passim; Calendar of Domestic 
State Papers, 1581-1594, passim ; Calendar of Scottish State Papers, 1589-1603, 
passim ; Hatfield Manuscripts published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; 
Sydney State Papers, vol. i., pp. 27, 38 ; Lord Burghley's State Papers, p. 509 ; 
Fiants Elizabeth ; Morrin's " Patent and Close Rolls," vol. i., p. 133 ; Hore's 
" History of Wexford," passim. 



ST. Catherine's park. 29 



tion, in 1664, it was sold by the latter to Sir John Perceval, 
a baronet and ancestor of the Earls of Egmont, who died in the 
following year, and in 1666 it came into the possession of Sir 
William Davys. On the other lands included in the portion of 
Leixlip parish within the County Dublin we find at this time 
on those of Westmanstown two houses, occupied by Edward 
Harrington and Richard Boothby, and fifteen cottages; on those 
of Laraghcon a house occupied by Samuel Lucas and two cottages ; 
and on those of Pass-if-you-can two cottages (i). 

The Right Hon. Sir William Davys, who was appointed succes- 
sively Recorder of Dublin, Prime Serjeant, and Chief Justice of 
the King's Bench in Ireland, attained to his high position as much 
by interest as by professional ability. He was the son of a 
remarkable man, the Right Hon. Sir Paul Davys, an official in 
Dublin Castle, who enjoyed the confidence of such widely different 
administrators as the Earl of Strafford, Henry Cromwell, and the 
Duke of Ormonde, and who found it compatible with his opinions 
to occupy a seat in the various parliaments of his time. Sir 
Paul Davys, whose father was a country gentleman resident in the 
County Kildare, appears to have owed his introduction into official 
life to his marriage to his first wife. Sir William Davys' mother, 
who was a granddaughter of Sir William Ussher of Donnybrook, 
and after the Restoration found in the Duke of Ormonde a staunch 
and powerful friend. Notwithstanding the fact that Sir Paul 
Davys had sat in the Commonwealth parliament the Duke of 
Ormonde speaks of him as having been ever true, like himself, to 
*' the loyal Protestant interest." When English officials found fault 
with the Irish despatches the Duke of Ormonde defended Sir Paul 
Davys, saying that though his language might be out of fashion 
in England it suited very well in this country. To Sir William 
Davys the Duke of Ormonde also proved a generous patron, at first 
from regard for his father and afterwards on account of the able 
service which Sir William Davys himself constantly rendered to 
him. When the Duke came to Ireland in 1662 as Lord Lieutenant 
he found Davys holding the office of Recorder of Dublin, to which 
he had been appointed when only three years called to the bar, 
as well as the position of one of the representatives of the city in 
parliament, and it was in no perfunctory way that the Recorder 



{^) Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1647-lOGO, pp. 26, 812; Survey of Upper- 
cross and Newcastle; Census of 1659; Subsidy Rolls; Hearth Money Rolls; 
Davys' Collection in Trinity College Library, MS. No. 647. 



30 PARISH OF LEIXLIP. 



carried out the direction of the Corporation to entertain the 
viceroy on his arrival with an oration of hearty welcome. The 
Duke of Ormonde then conferred on Davys the honour of knight- 
hood, and made him Attorney-General and afterwards Chief 
Justice of the Regalities of Tipperary, and in return, when the 
Duke of Ormonde was superseded in the viceroyalty, Davys was 
instrumental in inducing the Corporation of Dublin to confer on 
the Duke's gallant son the Earl of Ossory the freedom of the city. 

While the Earl of Essex was Lord Lieutenant, when great 
disturbances took place in the Corporation, Davys was for two 
years suspended from his office of Recorder, and some years later, 
during the terror of Oates' plot, owing to an allegation of his 
being in the Duke of York's interest, was hurried out of Ireland 
into England. But he had previously obtained additional influence 
from his marriage to a daughter of Archbishop Boyle, then Lord 
Chancellor of Ireland, as well as Archbishop of Armagh. While the 
Archbishop was acting as a Lord Justice in 1675 he had secured 
for his son-in-law the office of Prime Serjeant — a position of 
honour, according to the Archbishop, rather than of emolument, 
but a sure step to the bench. The Duke of Ormonde, on his return 
as viceroy, lost no time in urging Davys' claims to promotion on 
the ground of his services as Recorder, and of the gratification his 
appointment would give Archbishop Boyle, saying that he would 
vouch for Davys' right principles both as to Church and State, 
and, although on the first occasion the recommendation was 
unsuccessful, in 1681 Davys was raised to the bench as Chief 
Justice of the King's Bench. 

When Davys purchased St. Catherine's, in 1666, it appears to have 
fallen from its former state, and to have become an agricultural 
rather than a residential holding. He took over from the represen- 
tatives of Sir John Perceval a large stock of cattle and sheep which 
had been purchased from Alderman Hatfield, and subsequently let 
the house, first to Henry Wade and then to John Pim, with a pro- 
vision that in case of plague or other sickness in Dublin the tenant 
was to allow him and his father. Sir Paul Davys, to occupy portion 
of the house. After his father's death, which took place in 1672, 
we find Davys had taken up his residence there, and the house 
doubtless underwent renovation or was rebuilt. The year before 
his elevation to the bench, in 1680, Davys lost his first wife, 
and three years later, while residing at St. Catherine's, he 
had the misfortune to lose his only daughter and child. 



ST. CATHERINES PARK. 



31 




^ 



32 PARISH OF LEIXLIP. 



He had, however, meantime married again, and had taken 
as his wife a lady of very high birth and connection, a daughter 
of George, sixteenth Earl of Kildare, who had been previously 
married to Callaghan, second Earl of Clancarty. This marriage 
did not please his new wife's relatives, any more than Archbishop 
Boyle, and in connection with legal proceedings between the 
FitzGeralds and the Earl of Arran, the Duke of Ormonde's second 
son, Davys' brother-in-law threatened to impugn his conduct as a 
judge and to get the King to remove him, a threat to which Davys 
made the fine reply that he feared to do an ill thing but did not 
fear the consequences of a just judgment. After the accession of 
James II. Davys, who had gone to England for his health, which 
was much impaired from gout, was admitted to kiss the King's 
hand, and although it was rumoured that he was to be removed, 
he still held the office of Chief Justice when his death took place 
in 1687. He was buried in St. Audoen's, where his father and all 
his family were interred (i). 

Sir William Davys had a half-brother. Sir John Davys, a son 
of Sir Paul Davys by his second wife, who was a daughter of Sir 
William Parsons, and it was the eldest son of this brother who 
ultimately succeeded to St. Catherine's and his other property. 
Sir John Davys, who had been educated in Dublin University and 
at Lincoln's Inn, succeeded his father as prime secretary and 
clerk of the Council, and earned a high character for prudence and 
integrity. Like his half-brother, he fell under suspicion during Gates' 
plot, but reinstated himself, and after James the Second's accession 
proved how little ground there was for the allegations by retiring 
to England, where he remained until after the battle of the Boyne. 
He then came back to Ireland and resumed his seat on the privy 
council, but did not long enjoy his return to this country, as his 
death took place in 1692. He left two sons, Paul and Robert, 
who were in a curious position under Sir William Davys' will, as 
he had bequeathed his property to the one who should take his 



(1) " Some Notes on the Irish Judiciary in the reign of Charles II," in Journal 
of the Cork Historical and ArchcBological Association, vol. vii., p. 101 ; also cj. 
authorities there quoted, and Thurloe's '* State Papers," vols. vi. and vii., passim ; 
Manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, published by Historical Manuscripts 
Commission ; Davys' Collection in Trinity College Library, MSS. Nos. 646, 647 ; 
Letter from Sir William Davys in possession of the Marquis of Ormonde. 



ST. Catherine's park. 33 



step-daughter, Lady Katherine MacCarty, to wife, but this matter 
finally arranged itself, and on his marriage to the young lady the 
eldest son became owner of St. Catherine's (i). 

Paul Davys, who was created in 1706 Baron and Viscount 
Mountcashel, seems to have been a young man of fashion and a 
great friend of James, second Duke of Ormonde, to whom he 
acknowledged his indebtedness for his titles. In some letters 
written from St. Catherine's to the Duke of Ormonde about the 
time he was raised to the peerage. Lord Mountcashel dwells on 
the dulness of Dublin, but rather discounts the value of his 
judgment by retailing much gossip of not too delicate a nature 
about the Dublin aristocracy of that time. He died in 1716, 
leaving his wife and several young children surviving him. Lady 
Mountcashel was highly esteemed as a religious and charitable 
lady, and in 1710 we find Dean Theophilus Harrison, a friend 
of John Strype the ecclesiastical historian, and a man of great 
piety, staying at St. Catherine's, no doubt at her invitation. She 
had lost several of her children in infancy, and in 1719 the death 
of her eldest surviving son, the second Lord Mountcashel, at the 
age of ten years was announced, a calamity which was followed in 
1736 by the death of her last son, the third Lord Mountcashel, 
when only twenty-five years of age. The poor lady only survived 
this blow two years, until 1738, when her death occurred at St. 
Catherine's (2). 

St. Catherine's then passed into the possession of Sir Samuel 
Cooke, a baronet who was twice Lord Mayor of Dublin, and 
for some years represented the city in parliament. During his 
occupation, in 1754, Mrs. Delany paid a visit to the place, and in 
her sprightly manner describes it as downright ugly, enclosed in 
high walls, with terraces supported by walls one above another, as 
formal as bad taste could make it, but capable of being one of 
the finest places she ever saw. Sir Samuel Cooke is said to have 
discovered lead in the grounds and was more occupied in developing 



(*) Todd's "Graduates of Dublin University"; Lincoln's Inn Admissions; 
Carte Papers, vol. xxxix., ff. 66, 186 ; vol. cxlvi., f. 309 ; vol. ccxix., ff. 174, 
222, 270; Southwell Papers in Tnnity CoUegti Library, MS. No. 1180. 

(*) Letters from Paul Lord Mount-cashel in possession of the Marquis of Or- 
monde ; '* History of St. Audoen's Parish " in Irish Bvilder for 1887, p. 113, et 
jHissim ; Correspondence of John Strype in Cambridge University Library, MS. 
No. 408; Foe's Occurrences^ March 10-14, 1719; OerUlemarb's Magazine for 173S, 
p. 22L 

D 



34 PARISH OF LEIXLIP. 



the useful than the picturesque features of the place. Mrs. 
Delany says that the chapel had been connected with the house 
by a fine gothic gallery with bow windows, but that Sir Samuel 
Cooke had pulled this down and erected a palisade — a proceeding 
that led the lively lady to exclaim that it was provoking to see 
such beauties thrown away upon vandals (i). Sir Samuel Cooke, 
who died in 1758 and whose title is extinct, married a daughter 
of the Very Rev. John Trench, an ancestor of the Lords Ash town, 
and left an only daughter. She married Richard Warburton, of 
Garryhinch, and they resided for a time at St. Catherine's, the fee 
of which descended from them to the lafe Mr. Thomas Cooke- 
Trench of Millicent. St. Catherine's was later on in that century 
occupied by Sir Richard Wolseley of Mount Wolseley, 
the first baronet of his line, and for many years a repre- 
sentative of the County Carlow in parliament, who died there 
in 1781 (2). Before 1795, when the accompanying view of the 
house was taken, St. Catherine's had been purchased by Robert, 
third Earl of Lanesborough, who doubtless sought relief there 
from the sad memories attached to Sans Souci at Booterstown, 
and who built considerable additions to the house and modernised 
the old apartments. Subsequently it became a residence of the 
La Touches, his wife's relatives, in whose time thlB house was 
filled with pictures and articles of vertu. While in the occupation 
of the latter owners the house was completely destroyed by fire (3), 
and was never rebuilt. 



(^) See " A Memoir of the Trench Family," by Thomas R. F. Cooke-Trench, 
and Mrs. Delany's " Autobiography and Correspondence," vol. iii., p. 281. 

(2) Exs^iaw'a Magazine for 1781, p. 448. 

(^) Jonathan Fisher's " Scenery of Ireland " ; D' Alton's " History of County 
Dublin," p. 664. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 35 



Parish of Lucan 

{i.e., Leamhcan or a flace abounding in marsh maUoioa). 



The Parish of Lucan appears in the seventeenth century as containing the Town- 
lands of Lucan, Westpanstown, and St. Catherine's. 

It now contains the townlands of Backwestonpark, Cooldrinagh {i.e., the corner 
of the black thorn), Doddsborough, Lucan and Pettycanon, Lucan 
Demesne, St. Edmondsbury, and Tobermaclugg {i.e., the well of the belle). 

The objects of antiquarian interest are a sepulchral chamber, and the ruins of 
the castle and church. 

There is a well called Tobermaclugg in the townland of that name. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 

The parish of Lucan, famed for the beauty of its situation and its 
sulphur spa, lies about eight miles to the west of the city of Dublin, 
and is only separated from the County Kildare by a narrow piece 
of the parish of Aderrig which lies to the south-west of Lucan. 
Lucan parish contains the finest inland scenery in the metro- 
politan county, and its castle stood at a particularly picturesque 
point on the southern bank of the river Liffey, where that 
river, to which the parish owes its chief attraction, is joined 
by another but much smaller one called the Griffeen. Remains of 
the castle are still to be seen within the demesne of Lucan House, 
the residence of Captain Charles Nicholas Colthurst-Vesey, d.l., 
close to Lucan village and not far from a great stone bridge of 
a single arch by which the road from Dublin to Maynooth is carried 
over the Liffey. The remains of the castle consist of a square 
tower, two storeys in height, with a stair turret on the northern 
side, and a small annex in the eastern direction. On the southern 
side are the walls of the old parish church, which was connected 
with the castle by a door, and which is divided into two portions, 
the western one being a burial place belonging to the Vesey 
family (}). 



(1) See "The Lesser Castles of the" County Dublin" bv E, B. M'C. Dix in 
The Irish Builder for 1897, p. 36. 

d2 



36 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



The remains of the castle occupy, probably, the site of a fortified 
dwelling erected soon after the Anglo-Norman Conquest. Even 
before that time Lucan had been a place of importance, as was 
indicated by the discovery of an early sepulchral chamber near the 
village (1), and a century after that event it possessed a manorial 
residence with a large curtilage and garden, and the usual 
adjuncts of a mill and a dove-cot, round which a town of consider- 
able size had grown, up, as the rent paid by the inhabitants shows. 
The demesne lands, some of which were covered with wood, were 
extensive and were worked in the usual way by the smaller tenants, 
or betaghs, on the other lands owned by the lord of Lucan. This 
class of tenants seems to have been far the largest in the manor 
of Lucan, and only few farmers, who rendered service by deputy, 
or free tenants, came under the jurisdiction of the Lucan manor 
court. The latter was, however, a source of some small revenue 
to the owner, as was also the salmon fishing on the Liffey. After 
the Anglo-Norman Conquest the lands of Lucan came into the 
possession of Al'ard Fitzwilliam, but were granted by him before 
the year 1204 to Wirris Peche, whose descendants held them for 
more than a century. It is in connection with a confirmation by 
King John of this grant to Wirris Peche that the first mention 
of the lands of Lucan occurs, and the entry records that the 
confirmation of his title was given to Wirris Peche in consideration 
of forty marks and a palfrey sent to the King's treasurer. The 
family of Peche, the founder of which, as an old writer quaintly 
remarks, must have been a very wicked fellow since his name 
meant sin in the abstract, was seated in Essex as early as the 
reign of Edward the Confessor, and members of it, including 



C) In Pue's Occurrences for July 27 to August 2, 1740, the following appears : — 
" It having been reported that a cave was lately discovered at Lucan in the C!ounty 
of Dublin on the lands of the Petty Canon of St. Patrick's, some gentlemen went 
thither to examine it who give the following account : — Within about 100 yards 
of the town of Lucan on the eastern bank of the river Griffin which falls there into 
the Liflfey is a round hill or large artificial mount (for it is hard to distinguish which 
it is) so steep on all sides that it is scarce accessible except by one way, against 
which a rampart of earth was thrown up about breast high as we suppose for 
defence. On the top of the mount, and not far from the edge of it, is a hole or 
entrance of stone not unlike the mouth of an oven so narrow that it must be 
entered with your feet foremost. Then you come into a pretty large circular 
chamber about 13 feet in diameter built round and arched with stone work and 
above 8 feet high although much earth is fallen in. From this a passage built 
in the same manner, about 22 feet in length, leads you to a chamber like the for- 
mer. From hence a long passage as before conducts you to the end of this sub- 
terraneous building from whence you have no way of getting up into the open 
air but by creeping on your hands and feet." 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 37 



Richard Peche, who was Bishop of Lichfield in the twelfth century, 
and Bartholomew Peche, who was a favourite minister of 
Henry III., are afterwards found in various parts of England. 

Wirris Peche appears to have been a native of Hampshire, in 
which county he paid the fees for confirmation of his title to 
Lucan, but he was not the only one of his name connected with 
Ireland about that time. In the reign of Richard I., Richard 
Peche, who was sent in 1180 as a messenger to this country, and 
was given by Henry II. as provision for his journey forty horse 
loads of wheat and twenty hogs, owned Irish lands, of which he 
gave a large portion to the Archbishop of Dublin, and in a royal 
grant made at Portsmouth by Henry III. to one Hamon Peche 
it is mentioned that he was the son of Gilbert Peche, who had 
been in Ireland in the reign of King John. On succeeding to 
Lucan, Wirris Peche appears to have come to reside there, and 
married a daughter of his neighbour Stephen son of Sir Adam 
de Hereford of Leixlip. By her he had a daughter, Alice, who 
married Ralph Pippard, and through this marriage the Pippard 
family ultimately became owners of Leixlip. At Lucan he was 
succeeded by another owner of the same name, probably his son, 
and subsequently we find William Peche, who died before 1270, in 
possession of the manor. The lands were then for a time in the 
hands of the Crown, owing to the minority of William Peche's 
heir, but in 1285 Henry Peche was in possession of them and 
rendered annually to the Crown a drum and four pairs of furred 
gloves as rent for them. Not long afterwards Henry Peche died, 
and in 1291 the marriage of his only daughter and child Roesia 
was granted by the Crown to Robert Hanstede and his wife 
Margery, who were living in England. The escheator was, how- 
ever, directed to send their ward under safe conduct to Chester, 
to the justiciary of that place and his consort, and with their 
help Roesia Peche evidently arrived safely with her guardians, as 
in a few years we find her married to their son John Hanstede. 
The young couple then entered into possession of Lucan, where 
we find them in 1305 involved in a lawsuit about the salmon 
fishery with their relative and neighbour Ralph Pippard, the owner 
of Leixlip, and with a more formidable opponent, the King. They 
appear to have been unsuccessful in the cause, the jury deciding 
that half the Lucan fishery belonged to the owner of Leixlip, and 
that a weir which had been recently erected at Lucan by one Roger 



38 PABISH OP LUCAN. 



Smalris, and which the sheriff was directed to remove, had much 
narrowed the water course to the prejudice of the King (}). 

Before 1327 Robert de Nottingham, sometime Mayor of Dublin 
and one of its wealthiest citizens, already mentioned as owner of 
Merrion at that time, was in possession of the Lucan estate. He 
died in that year and was succeeded at Lucan by his son William. 
The latter, who only survived his father a few years, was possessed 
at the time of his death of much live stock, including a thousand 
sheep and two hundred lambs, and of a house well furnished with 
plate and beds of linen and wool. After William's death prolonged 
litigation took place between three of his relatives — his widow 
Matilda, who married secondly John Gernan ; his father's widow 
Eglantine, who married secondly Thomas Bagot and thirdly 
Thomas de Eton; and his sister Eglantine, who married John de 
Bathe (2). 

Subsequently we find various persons mentioned as having an 
interest in Lucan, including Sir Thomas Rokeby, sometime 
justiciary of Ireland, who had married Matilda Tyrrell, widow 
of Robert Burnell of Balgriffin, and Sir Robert de Clinton, and 
ultimately it came into the possession of the FitzGerald family. 
The FitzGeralds continued to hold it until the sixteenth century, 
and it was in the castle of Lucan that, in 1517, Elizabeth, wife of 
Garret, ninth Earl of Kildare, died. At the time of the dissolution 
of the religious houses St. Mary's Abbey owned at Lucan two 
houses and a dove-cot, and the Minor Canons and Choristers of St. 
Patrick's Cathedral a house and some land, while St. Wolstan's 
Priory owned, besides a holding in Lucan, the lands of Backweston 
and Cooldrinagh. After the attainder of Gerald, tenth Earl of 
Kildare, the manor of Lucan was confiscated by the Crown and 
leased in 1554 to the Clerk of the Check of the Army, Matthew 
King, on condition that he inhabited the castle himself or placed 
in it liege men who would use the English tongue and dress, and 
hold no communication with the Irish (3). 

(1) Sweetman's Calendar, passim; Pipe Roll, 55 Hen. III. tol Edw. I. ; Justice 
Roll 34 Edw. I. ; Morant's " History of Essex," passim ; Woodward's " History 
of Hampshire," passim ; " Register of Abbey of St. Thomas," by Sir John 
Gilbert, in Rolls Series. 

(*) Memoranda, Plea and Justiciary Rolls. 

(3) See " Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, with an account of his family, and 
their connection with Lucan and TuUy," by Lord Walter FitzGerald, in the Journal 
of the County Kildare Archceological Society, vol. iv., pp. 114-147, a paper from 
which the author has received much assistance respecting the history of Lucan ; 
also see Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. ii., p. 75 ; Mason's " History of 
St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 86 ; Exchequer Inquisitions, Co. Dublin, Henry VIII., 
Nos. 87, 88 ; Fiant, Philip and Mary, No. 37. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 39 



A few years later the castle and estate of Lucan came into the 
possession of Sir William Sarsfield, a citizen of Dublin, who laid 
aside the toga for military pursuits and a country life. The 
Sarsfields, who are supposed to have come to this country from a 
place called Sarnesfield, in Herefordshire, settled in Ireland not 
long after the Anglo-Norman Conquest, and before the sixteenth 
century were seated at Sarsfieldstown, in the County Meath, of 
which Sir William Sarsfield's grandfather, Roger Sarsfield, was 
sometime owner. His father, John Sarsfield, as a younger son, 
entered into business in Dublin, and in 1531 was called to the 
mayoral chair of that city. In that high position he was succeeded 
in 1553 by his eldest son Patrick, and in 1566 by William, who 
was his second son. Of the mayoralty of his eldest son, who 
married one of the Fitzwilliams and has been mentioned as a 
resident in Baggotrath Castle, Stanihurst has left us a lively 
picture, and records that this hospitable and public spirited gentle- 
man " thanked God and good company " that three barns well 
stored and packed with corn and twenty tuns of claret scarcely 
sufficed for the provision of his house during his year of office. 
William Sarsfield, who was nominated as an alderman in 1560, 
was not so well prepared as he wished when called upon unex- 
pectedly six years later to take the mayoral chair, but he earned 
the respect of all loyal citizens and the gratitude of the Lord 
Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, who was in England at the time, by 
the prowess he displayed immediately after his election as chief 
magistrate. For, on hearing that Drogheda, where Sir Henry 
Sidney had left his wife during his absence, was threatened by some 
of the Ulster tribes, '' Master Sarsfield," with a chosen band '* of 
goodly young citizens," set out to the relief of that town and 
succeeded, as Campion tells us, " in breaking the rage of the 
enemy." It was for this act of valour that Sir Henry Sidney 
conferred on William Sarsfield the honour of knighthood. 

From that time Sir William Sarsfield made Lucan Castle, then 
one of the principal houses in the County Dublin, his chief 
residence, and was subsequently deprived of his rights as a Dublin 
citizen for leaving his town house derelict when Dublin was visited 
by the plague. He served in 1571 as sheriff of his county, and as 
a man of mark had opportunity of indulging the love for arms 
which he seems in middle life to have developed. On several 
occasions he was included in the commission to execute martial 
law and to muster the militia of the metropolitan county, and was 



40 PARISH OP LUCAN. 



appointed to command the forces raised in the Newcastle barony. 
In this capacity he received from the Crown an expression of 
thanks together with a grant of lands for his exertions in under- 
taking, in the winter of 1581, an expedition into the Wicklow hills 
to rescue a Captain Garret, who had been taken prisoner 
and was afterwards murdered by some of the inhabitants. The 
fact that he was one of those who complained of being oppressed 
and impoverished by intolerable cesses laid upon the Pale, and who 
were for a time committed to the Castle of Dublin, interfered only 
temporarily with his public usefulness, and besides his military 
occupations we find him surveying with Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam 
the lands to be included in the County Wicklow and acting as a 
justice of the peace in the counties within the Pale. His death 
took place in 1616, when he had attained the great age of ninety- 
six years, and he was buried in the church of Lucan adjoining his 
castle. 

Sir William Sarsfield, from whom the famous Patrick Sarsfield, 
Earl of Lucan, was directly descended, married a daughter of 
Andrew Tyrrell of Athboy, and many of his children married into 
families of high position. His eldest son John, who married a 
daughter of Sir Luke Dillon, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, died 
before him, and only his second son Patrick, who was established 
at Tully in the County Kildare, and his third son Simon, survived 
him. His eldest daughter was twice married, first to Sir Robert 
Dillon, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and secondly to Sir 
Christopher Bellew; and another daughter married Christopher 
Bathe, of Rathfeigh. At Lucan Sir William Sarsfield was succeeded 
by his son John's eldest son, who was his namesake as well as 
grandson, and to him he left the tapestry with which the walls of 
Lucan Castle were hung and certain articles of plate. These 
included a basin and ewer of silver, a salt cellar, and covered cups 
of various kinds, as well as a share of the remaining silver, which 
he directed should be divided between his grandson and his son 
Patrick (1). 

William Sarsfield, who was thirty-four at the time of his grand- 
father's death, and had married a daughter of Sir Patrick 
Barnewall, appears to have passed the peaceful life of a country 

{y) The Herald and Genealogist, edited by J. G. Nichols, vol. ii., pp. 205-215 ; 
Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin, edited by Sir John Gilbert, vol. ii., pp. 
13, 46, 48, 57, 102, 353, 358, 538 ; Calendar of Carew Papers, 1575-1588, p. 149; 
Haliday Manuscripts, p. 162, published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; 
Fiants Elizabeth, passim ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, passim ; Manuscript 
in Trinity College Library, F. 1, 18, p. 177 ; " Description of Ireland in 1598," 
edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, p. 37 ; Will of Sir William Sarsfield. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 



41 






^n 




r. 



s "^ 



42 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



gentleman, and proved himself when the troubled times came a 
loyal Roman Catholic. After the rebellion we find one of his 
relatives who lived with him at Lucan making a deposition with 
regard to certain persons whom he had seen in warlike array at 
the Castle of Lyons; and even when, four years later, the army 
of the Confederates and the army under Owen O'Neill advanced 
on Lucan and Newcastle, William Sarsfield " preserved his loyalty 
unblemished." While these armies lay in the district the Marquis 
of Clanricarde wrote to the Duke of Ormonde from Leixlip Castle 
saying that Mr. Sarsfield was " infinitely pestered and destroyed " 
by the soldiers, and was apprehensive that he would be deemed 
disloyal on account of the help which he had been forced against 
his will to give them, and urging that an assurance should be given 
Mr. Sarsfield that he would be protected when the armies were 
withdrawn. This was done, and in a King's letter written soon 
after the Restoration, it is stated that William Sarsfield adhered 
constantly to the royal cause, and was very diligent and active in 
providing necessaries for the garrison in Dublin when its siege was 
threatened. In this commendation the royal letter includes William 
Sarsfield's cousin and heir Patrick Sarsfield, grandson of his uncle 
Patrick Sarsfield, and father of the Earl of Lucan, who appears to 
have resided with him at Lucan. There is, however, some doubt 
as to whether his cousin, although he had been returned in 1641 
as member for the borough of Kildare, had acted an entirely loyal 
part during the rebellion. His father, Peter Sarsfield, had been 
outlawed, and he was married to a daughter of the prime con- 
spirator, Roger O'More, who is said, on the discovery of the plot, 
to have fled from Dublin to his daughter's house at Lucan. When 
the Commonwealth came William Sarsfield, then nearly seventy 
years of age and a widower, was residing at Lucan with two 
of his sisters, his cousin Patrick Sarsfield, and his cousin's wife and 
family. He gave much employment on his lands, and many of 
his servants appear amongst the inhabitants of Lucan, who num- 
bered some hundred and twenty persons and included two butchers, 
two glove makers, two carpenters, two millers, a mason, a tailor, a 
shoemaker, a man cook, and a gardener (i). 

But the Sarsfields, like their neighbours the Luttrells, soon had 
to make room for a nominee of the Commonwealth, and Lucan 

m Chancery Inquisition, CJo. Dublin, Jac. 1., No. 27; Depositions of 1641; 
Carte Papers, vol. iv., f. 184, vol. ix., f. 23, vol. xix., f. 367 ; Calendar of Irish 
State Papers, 1633-47, passim ; Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. i., p. 329 ; 
Survey of Uppercross and Newcastle. 



LUOAN AND ITS CASTLE. 43 



Castle became the residence of Sir Theophilus Jones, an ofl&cer 
who had distinguished himself in the war in Ireland. Sir 
Theophilus Jones was one of three brothers who always managed 
to be on the winning side in the eventful times in which they lived, 
and who were innate soldiers. This was the more remarkable as 
their father, who displayed extraordinary longevity, was a bishop 
of the Irish Church, and one of the brothers (who accepted, not- 
withstanding, during the Commonwealth the military ofl&ce of scout 
master) was also a prelate of that Church. The third brother. 
Colonel Michael Jones, has been already mentioned as the victor 
of the royal army on the battlefield of Rathmines, and died not 
long after this, the great achievement of his life. Sir Theophilus 
Jones began his military career under Charles I., and after the 
outbreak of the rebellion in 1641 served in the North of Ireland. 
Subsequently he was taken prisoner at Kells by the army of the 
Confederates, but after confinement for some time was released. 
He then accepted a command in the army of the Parliament. In 
that service he showed conspicuous courage, and was severely 
wounded while acting under his brother Colonel Michael Jones in 
an attack on Ballysonan Castle in the County Kildare, where he 
had been detained while a prisoner. During the Commonwealth he 
was considered one of its most fervent adherents, and represented 
in the Commonwealth parliament a group of Irish counties. But 
in 1659 he joined the Earl of Orrery and Sir Charles Coote in 
wresting the government of Ireland from the civil power, and in 
the words of Charles II., '* acted imminently with the hazard of his 
life and fortune " in seizing on Miles Corbett and others who then 
bore sway in this country. He was one of those who laboured to 
have the Convention called, and became an active instrument in 
securing the King's restoration. He was recommended to 
Charles II. as one in whom implicit reliance might be placed, and 
as a powerful supporter of royalist interests in the Irish House of 
Commons, where he sat for the County Meath, was appointed a 
privy councillor. 

Sir Theophilus Jones made Lucan Castle, which was one of " the 
fairest houses " in the County Dublin, and rated as containing 
no less than twelve hearths, his chief residence, and ruled as owner 
over the Sarsfield's property. His possessions in the village of 
Lucan, where a good stone bridge then crossed the Liffey, included 
a corn mill and some twenty thatched houses and cabins, only 
one of these, however, a house occupied by Nicholas Hide, being 



44 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



rated as containing two hearths, while on lands called Peddins- 
town he owned " a habitable house," which was occupied by Samuel 
Bathurst and rated as containing as many as six chimneys. Three 
years after the Restoration Lucan Castle was the scene of a 
historic interview between Sir Theophilus Jones and Colonel 
Alexander Jephson, one of the ringleaders in Thomas Blood's plot 
to take the Castle of Dublin and overthrow the Government. In 
a long account of this interview Sir Theophilus Jones relates how 
while he was walking, between nine and ten o'clock one May morn- 
ing in the year 1663, near the bridge of Lucan, watching the 
arrival of a troop of soldiers who were to be quartered at Lucan, 
he came upon Colonel Jephson, who had just ridden up alone and 
alighted from his horse, and how, as the horse required to be shod, 
he invited him into Lucan Castle, where the early dinner of that 
time was being prepared in the hall. For it Colonel Jephson said 
he was unable to wait, and on his expressing a wish to be apart 
Sir Theophilus Jones took him into the buttery, " being the room 
next at hand." There, after a tankard of ale, a bottle of cider, 
and a dish of meat had been set before them. Colonel Jephson 
disclosed the plot and the intention of the conspirators to offer 
Sir Theophilus Jones the command of the army after the capture 
of Dublin Castle — a communication the whole of which Sir 
Theophilus Jones lost no time in repeating to the Duke of Ormonde. 

Sir Theophilus Jones, whose mother was a sister of Archbishop 
James XJssher, married one of his cousins, a granddaughter of Sir 
William Ussher of Donnybrook, and a daughter of Arthur Ussher, 
who was drowned in the River Dodder. As Sir John Perceval 
and Sir William Davys were nephews of this lady, the proximity 
of St. Catherine's to Lucan Castle may have had some 
bearing on their purchasing successively the former place, 
and one of her brothers, Arthur Ussher, who was a cornet 
in her husband's troop of horse, appears also to have been for a 
time resident at Lucan. Sir Theophilus Jones, who died at 
Osberstown, in the County iCildare, in 1685, had several children, 
and through his daughters the Earls of Lanesborough and the 
Saundersons of Castle Saunderson trace descent from him (i). 

(1) See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxx., p. 162 ; also cf. " A Perfect 
Narrative of the proceedings of the Army under the command of Colonel Michael 
Jones," Lon., 1648 ; Crown Rentals ; Census of 1659 ; Down Survey Map ; Carte 
Papers, vol. xliii., f. 247, vol. Ixviii., f. 159; Hearth" Money Roll; Chancery 
Inquisitions, Co. Dublin, Car. II., No. 65 ; Historical Manuscripts Commission, 
Report VIII., App., p. 623 ; " Ussher Memoirs," by Rev. W. Ball Wright, pp. 
85, 141, 144. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 45 



William Sarsfield only survived his expulsion from Lucan a few 
years, until 1654; but soon after the Restoration his cousin and 
heir Patrick Sarsfield petitioned the King to grant him the Lucan 
estate. This the King was anxious to do, but finally the matter 
was referred to the Court of Claims, and Patrick Sarsfield lodged a 
claim on behalf of himself, his wife, and his eldest son. He had 
three sons, John, William, and Patrick, afterwards Earl of Lucan, 
but John had died during the Commonwealth, and William, who 
was stated to be only a boy of about eleven when the claim was 
made, was, therefore, his eldest surviving son. The Commissioners 
under the Act of Settlement took a different view to the King 
and decided that the estate could not be restored to Patrick 
Sarsfield on account of his complicity in the rebellion. This could 
not apply, however, to his son who was not born at the time, and 
the Commissioners ordered that the estate should be given up to 
him. A very serious state of things soon arose. Sir Theophilus 
Jones, who was required by this decision to give up the Lucan 
estate, was one of the last persons the King wished should suffer 
loss. Directions were given to find him at once an estate of 
equal or greater value elsewhere, but it was not so easy to do, and 
it was many years before all the Sarsfields' property was surren- 
dered by him. In the beginning of 1671 the well-known Richard 
Talbot, afterwards Earl of Tyrconnel, implored Charles II. to 
obtain relief for Patrick Sarsfi eld's children, " then groaning under 
an insupportable burden of misery from want of subsistence,'' and 
William Sarsfield, at the same time, sent a formal petition, in 
which he mentioned that in his belief his father was found guilty 
of the rebellion on perjured evidence. In spite of his poverty 
William Sarsfield had before this time made his way to London 
and had become known in royal circles, for the next mention of him 
shows that he had married one of the natural daughters of 
Charles II., a sister of the Duke of Monmouth. The latter exerted 
his influence to obtain the surrender of the Lucan estate to his 
brother-in-law, but without immediate success, and the King 
granted the newly-married couple for their present relief a pension 
of £800 a year. William Sarsfield died within a few years of that 
time, in 1675, leaving his wife and three infant children, a son called 
Charles after his royal progenitor, a daughter called Charlotte, and 
a son whose name is not known. His widow married before 1677, as 
her second husband, William Fanshawe, one of the gentlemen in 
waiting on the King, and they began forthwith an active campaign 
on behalf of the children and themselves for the recovery of the 



46 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



Sarsfield estate. While this was going on the boys, however, died, 
and under their father's will the right to the property passed 
to their uncle Patrick (i). 

Patrick Sarsfield, the famous general, who was created by James II. 
Baron of Rosberry (2), Viscount of Tully, and Earl of Lucan, 
was successful in recovering most of the estates of his ancestors, 
but does not appear to have resided much at Lucan. The glowing 
eulogium which Lord Macaulay has pronounced on his abilities and 
character, has given him undying fame, but except during the 
revolution little is known of his career. The date of his birth 
cannot be fixed with certainty, but it is not improbable that he 




Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan. 

Front an old engraving hy M, A . Bregeon, wife of J. B, Tilliard. 

was born at Lucan before his family was ejected from the castle. 
It is said he received some military education in France, but that 
his first service in an English regiment was against that country 
in 1677, under his sister-in-law's brother, the Duke of Monmouth. 
About the middle of the next year he came to London, and 
remained there " at the house of the King's saddler at Charing 
Cross " for more than six months, until appointed a captain in Sir 



{^) Roll of Innocents, ix. m. 61; Carte Papers, vol. ix., f. 390; vol. xliii., 
f. 247; vol. Ix., ff. 179, 388; vol. cxlvi., f. 197; Cilendar of Domestic State 
Papers, 1671-1073, passim, 

(*) A title taken from property near Newbridge in the county Kildare 
belonging to the Sarsfields. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 47 

Thomas Dongan's regiment of foot. On receiving his commission, 
which was given to him in " the Crown and Sceptre Tavern in 
Piccadilly/' he set out for Ireland, but does not appear to have 
remained long in this country. He is said to have lived much 
about Whitehall, and a few years later we find him involved in 
England in more than one affair of honour and accused of assisting 
a Captain Clifford, who afterwards gained with Henry Luttrell 
notoriety at Limerick, in carrying off a rich widow against her 
will as she was driving in her coach over Hounslow Heath. He 
was severely wounded at the battle of Sedgemoor, where he fought 
against the Duke of Monmouth. Three years later, when he 
had attained to the rank of a colonel, it was rumoured that he 
was to be made governor of the Barbadoes. He was, however, 
reserved for a greater if not happier position, and before many 
months struck his first blow for James II. in the revolution in a 
skirmish with some of William the Third's troops at Wincanton, in 
Somersetshire. 

It is unnecessary, and would be impossible to follow Sarsfield 
through the historic events of the next few years. In the inimitable 
pages of Lord Macaulay's history the story is told of his part in the 
Irish campaign ; how, in spite of discouragement and jealous rivals, 
he never failed in single devotion to his master's cause, and stood 
pre-eminent amongst the commanders on his side for intrepidity 
and strategic ability, as well as for all that is upright and honour- 
able. After the surrender of Limerick he joined James II. in 
France. His career in the service of that country though brief 
brought him further laurels and he received a marshal's baton. 
But in 1693 he fell mortally wounded on the battlefield of 
Landen, exclaiming, "Would to Grod this had been for Ireland." 
He married a daughter of William, seventh Earl of Clanricarde, and 
left a son, not altogether unworthy of so brave a father, on whose 
death in 1719 the male line of the Sarsfields of Lucan became 
extinct. Lord Lucan's mother survived him, and was living in 
1694 in France with her two widowed daughters, who had married 
respectively. Viscount Kilmallock and Viscount Mount Leinster (i). 



(i) See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 1., p. 305, and Lord Walter Fitz- 
Oerald's paper, but also cj. Manuscripts of Chester Corporation, of Sir Frederick 
Graham, and of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, published by Historical Manuscripts 
Commission. 



48 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



Lord Lucan's right to the Lucan estate was not undisputed by 
the Fanshawes, who alleged that his brother had been induced to 
make the remainder to him by undue influence, and at the time 
of Charles the Second's death legal proceedings were pending. On 
the accession of James II. these proceedings were dropped, but no 
sooner had William III. been firmly established on the throne than 
William Fanshawe, who was a Protestant, and whose wife had 
become one, claimed the Lucan estate, then in the hands of the 
Crown, on behalf of his step-daughter Charlotte Sarsfield. 
After three years exertion and the expenditure of a considerable 
amount of money, he was successful in regaining it for her. 
Needless to say, as a great heiress she was not long in finding a 
husband, and through this marriage the Lucan estate passed to its 
present owners the Veseys (i). 

Charlotte Sarsfield 's husband, Agmondisham Vesey, was the 
second son of the Archbishop of Tuam of that time, the Most 
Rev. John Vesey, who held that see for many years, and from 
whose eldest son the Viscounts de Vesci are descended. The Arch- 
bishop belonged to a family which had been seated at Hintlesham 
Priory in Suffolk, and the first member of the family mentioned 
as connected with this country is the Archbishop's grandfather, 
William Vesey, described as of Gray's Inn, who succeeded to Irish 
property under the will of Henry Reynolds, his maternal uncle. 
William Vesey 's son, the Archbishop's father, the Rev. Thomas 
Vesey, who entered the Irish Church, became beneficed in the 
North of Ireland, and after the Restoration, although he had 
adopted during the Commonwealth the formularies required by 
the State, was appointed Archdeacon of Armagh. The Archbishop 
was twice married, and Agmondisham Vesey was his eldest son 
by his second wife. She was a daughter of Colonel Agmondisham 
Muschamp, and from the connection thus established arose the 
use of the curious names Agmondisham and Muschamp, originally 
the surnames of two ancient Surrey families, as Christian names 
in the Vesey family. Agmondisham Vesey was,- through his 
father's influence, returned in 1703 as member for the borough of 
Tuam, which he continued to represent until his death, and appears 
to have taken an active part in the political life of his day. In 
recognition of his position the University of Dublin, of which his 



(^) Calendar of Domestic State Papers, 1691-1693, and of Treasury Papers, 
1693-1703, passim. 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 49 



father afterwards became Vice-Chancellor, conferred on him an 
honorary degree as LL.D., and some years before his death he was 
appointed Controller and Accountant-General of Ireland jointly 
with his son. 

His wife, William Sarsfield's daughter, died not long after their 
marriage, leaving him two little daughters, from one of whom 
the present Earls of Lucan are descended, and Agmondisham Vesey 
had long and troublesome negotiations with the Crown regarding 
his title to the Lucan property, which required for its settlement 
more than one Act of Parliament. While promoting one of these 
bills in the English parliament in 1712 he received much assistance 
from Swift, who has recorded in the Journal to Stella that he 
spent a whole morning at the House of Commons door soliciting 
interest for a son of the Archbishop of Tuam, and that he secured 
him the support of above fifty members. Vesey had married again 
before that time Jane, daughter of Captain Edward Pottinger, 
who had been twice previously married, first to John Reynolds, of 
Kilbride, probably a relative of the Vesey family, and secondly to 
Sir Thomas Butler, the third baronet of the Ballintemple line. 
By her he had a numerous family, including Agmondisham, his 
eldest son, who succeeded him at Lucan, and other sons who entered 
the Church and the Navy (i). He died in 1738, and was buried 
according to his desire without ostentation in the old church 
beside Lucan Castle, where a mural tablet to his memory is still 
to be seen (2). 

His son, who became the Right Hon. Agmondisham Vesey, has 
obtained frequent mention in literature relating to his time as 
the husband of the far-famed Mrs. Vesey, one of the blue stocking 
coterie, the friend of Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and a host 



(*) Dictionary of National Biography, vol. Iviii., p. 289; Metcalfe's "Visita- 
tion of Suffolk, pp. 104, 173; Chancery Inquisition, Leitrim, Jac. I., No. 15; 
Manning's *• History of Surrey,'* vol. iii., p. 29 ; Return of Members of Parliament ; 
Todd's " Graduates of Dublin University " ; Bromley's Parliamentary Papers, 
vol. ii., p. 203, in Bodleian Library ; " Swift's Works," edited by Sir Walt-er Scott, 
vol. ii., p. 489 ; British Departmental Correspondence in Public Record Office ; 
Liber Munerum ; Wills of Agmondisham and Jane Vesey. 

(^) The monument is of black and white marble, and portrays a child lean- 
ing over a medallion bearing a man's head in relief, with a plain p3nramidical back- 
ground. It is supported on two brackets, between which is a tablet bearing 
the following incised inscription : — " This chappel was repair'd by Jane Lady 
Butler & this Monument Erected to the Memory of her dearly Beloved Husband 
A. V. deceased the 23rd of March An Domi 1738 with whom she is inter' d. Where 
thou Dyest there will I dye & Where thou art buryed there will I be buryed also." 
—See Lord Walter FitzGerald's Paper. 

E 



50 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



of the other literary and social celebrities of their day. This 
remarkable woman was a first cousin of his own, a daughter of 
his father's half-brother Sir Thomas Vesey, who was a bishop as 
well as a baronet, and from whom the Viscounts de Vesci are 
descended. She had been previously married to William Handcock, 
sometime member of parliament for Fore, and a collateral ancestor 
of the Lords Castlemaine. Her marriage to Vesey took place not 
long before his mother's death, which occurred in 1746, and in him, 
notwithstanding some difference of taste which became more accen- 
tuated in later life, she found a kind and indulgent husband. 
In the University of Dublin, of which he was a scholar as 
well as graduate, Vesey had shown considerable ability, and 
as member for Harristown, and subsequently for Kinsale, he 
took an active part in Irish parliamentary life. In London, 
where, owing to the sessions of the Irish parliament being only 
biennial, he and his wife were enabled to spend every alternate 
winter, he was thought worthy to be one of the twenty members 
of the Club founded by Dr. Johnson and Sir Samuel Reynolds, and 
made himself popular by his gentle manners and polished good 
nature. Some want of tact is implied in the accounts of his inter- 
course with Dr. Johnson, but perhaps it was not altogether his 
fault that the great doctor, when introduced to him, only remarked, 
" I see him," or that on another occasion he thought upon Tom 
Thumb while Vesey dilated on Catiline's conspiracy. A love of 
fashion, combined with what they considered an excess of gallantry, 
brought on him towards the close of his life the reproaches of Mrs. 
Vesey's friends, but he certainly never lost the affection and 
constant companionship of his wife. 

Notwithstanding her intellectual power and high moral character 
Mrs. Vesey's idiosyncrasies were not those to which every man would 
have accommodated himself, and her friend Mrs. Delany, who first 
met her as Mrs. Handcock on visiting Dublin in 1731, gives some 
indication that, like herself, Mrs. Vesey found greater happiness 
in her second marriage than in her first. She was a woman, 
although described as mince and delicate, of the most extraordinary 
energy of mind and body, and has been said to have been so 
desirous of seeing everything in the world that she never 
thoroughly enjoyed any one object from apprehension that some- 
thing better might be found in another. Her spirit, wit, and 
vivacity, which had gained for her amongst her intimates the 
name of the Sylph, carried her over every obstacle. In the case of 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 51 



the journey to England, which she made so frequently, she came 
to disregard not only the discomforts, but also the dangers which 
then surrounded it, and we find her contemplating the sublime 
terrors of the pass of Penmaenmawr and travelling through great 
tempests with an undisturbed mind. To Bath, Tunbridge Wells, 
and even to Paris, she was in early life a frequent visitor, and 
there she laid the foundations of the friendships which brought to 
her house in London all the great intellects of that day. In " her 
dear blue room,*' first in Bolton Row and afterwards in Clarges 
Street, her easy politeness, good sense and improved mind set 
everyone at their ease, and there Dr. Johnson was allowed to 
indulge in a harmless " skrimage," while Horace Walpole was 
induced to moderate his biting sarcasm. In their Dublin town house 
in Molesworth Street, where the Veseys spent the winters in which 
the Irish parliaments sat, she endeavoured to replace her London 
circle, and brought on herself some ridicule by her predilection for 
baronets and pamphleteers when earls and authors of folios failed. 
The domestic gifts which Mrs. Vesey lacked were amply supplied 
by a sister of her first husband, who constantly resided with the 
Veseys, and was known as Body, while Mrs. Vesey was called Mind. 
Mrs. Delany, who was one of the Vesey's most frequent visitors at 
Lucan, has left a pretty picture of the Lucan housekeeping, and 
tells how one day, when the Lucan inn failed to provide even a 
bit of bacon. Miss Handcock saved Dr. Delany and herself from 
a hungry drive to Dublin by feeding them on a good substantial 
shoulder of mutton and potatoes. 

At Lucan Mr. Vesey developed a perfect genius for architecture 
and proved himself a successful student in it, whatever he may 
have done in Irish history and antiquities and Celtic learning, to 
which he also devoted some attention. Lucan House stands as a 
monument of Vesey's skill in design, its Ionic front and hall, 
adorned with pillars and a frieze in the Grecian order, and enriched 
with medallions from designs by Angelica Kauffman, having 
received high encomiums from good judges. He was not neglectful 
of more useful details, and his new method of slating attracted 
the notice of the great architect, Sir William Chambers. When 
Vesey succeeded to Lucan the old castle was the residence in use, 
and with improvements and probably additions, which he made 
soon after his marriage, it appears to have served the Veseys as 
a dwelling until 1772, when the erection of the present house was 
undertaken. Mrs. Delany, in letters Y^ritten soon after the 

E 2 



52 



PARISH OF LUCAN. 







3 > 



S ^ 



LUCAN AND ITS CASTLE. 53 



Veseys' marriage, frequently refers to finding their house full 
of work and they themselves ''up to the chin in business," hanging 
pictures and settling other decorations. To Mrs. Delany this was 
a most congenial occupation, and there was no house in Ireland 
she liked so well to be in. She speaks with enthusiasm of the 
Veseys' method of framing pictures and of transparent Indian 
figures and flowers with which they decorated their windows, as 
well as of Vesey's fine collection of prints and library. A cottage 
in the grounds between Lucan House and Leixlip seems to date 
from their time, and on one occasion, when proceeding to it in a 
cabriolet, Mrs. Vesey nearly lost her life by the restiveness of the 
horse. Mrs. Delany also speaks of Mrs. Vesey's dairy, in which 
they sometimes breakfasted at a table streweH with roses, and of 
a bath house, with an antechamber in which they once dined. The 
latter, which is still to be seen, was according to tradition originally 
an oratory dedicated to St. John, and the bath is said to be 
supplied from a holy well. In the new house Mrs. Vesey, who 
was to occupy a round room, feared she would be like a parrot in 
a cage, and received much sympathy from her friends for the loss 
of *' the dear old castle with its niches and thousand other Gothic 
beauties," but Mrs. Vesey was delighted with the house when it was 
completed, and found the reluctance which she had felt in going 
to it had been little justified (i). 

About the same time as Lucan House, the handsome residence 
known as St. Edmondsbury, which lies to the east of the village 
of Lucan on the northern side of the road to Dublin, was built 
by the Right Hon. Edmond Sexton Pery, who after a long parlia- 
mentary career was elected in 1771 Speaker of the Irish House of 
Commons. St. Edmondsbury, where we find in 1783 Pery enter- 
taining the Viceroy, was erected on land belonging to the Veseys, 
to whom Pery had become nearly related by his marriage to a 
daughter of the first Viscount de Vesci. On his retirement in 
1785 from the Speaker's chair — a position which he filled to the 
admiration of so competent a critic as Charles Fox — Pery was 
raised to the peerage as Viscount Pery, and after the Union, 
against which he voted, appears to have resided in London, where 
in 1806 he died (2). 



(1) See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. Iviii., p. 289 ; cf, also authorities 
quoted there, and Exshaw's Magazine for March, 1746 ; Todd's Graduates 
of Dublin University " ; and " A Later Pepys " by Alice C. C. Gaussen, passim. 

(2) Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xlv., p. 42; DubUn J ommal, June 
21-24, 1783; Hardy's "Memoks of James Earl of Charlemont," vol. i. p. 157. 



54 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



Although Lucan had been known before as a health resort on 
account of a chalybeate spa which existed there, it was in Vesey's 
time, in the year 1758, that the present sulphur spa was discovered, 
and it was through his generosity that it was first made available 
to the public and protected from inundation by the Liffey by the 
erection of an enclosing wall. Its reputation stood high in the 
eighteenth century, and the water, " in flasks carefully corked on 
the spot," could be obtained in Dublin, but the advantage of 
drinking it at the source was then well understood, and numbers 
flocked to the healing spring. With the invalids came the fashion- 
able world, and in 1789 it is mentioned that Lucan was the 
favourite summer resort, and that the well was crowded with 
" persons of condition '' who often formed dancing parties at a 
ball-room which had been built before that time. Not long before 
1795 this ball room was superseded by, or incorporated in, the 
old hotel, which is still to be seen, and which was modelled on 
those existing at the time in watering places in England. The 
bridge at Lucan was a never ending object of anxiety, and was 
more than once rebuilt on a new site during the eighteenth 
century. Swift's well-known couplet about the bounty of the man 
who built a bridge at the expense of the county will recall the fact 
that one had been erected in the time of Vesey's father. As will 
be seen in the picture, this stood near the present Lucan House, 
and was in ruins soon after it was built. Another bridge, " an 
elegant stone structure of several arches ornamented with a frieze " 
had been erected lower down the stream at that time by Vesey, 
but this was carried away in 1786, and a bridge was then erected in 
the village near the site of the present one, which dates from 
1806 (1). 

The Veseys passed the last years of their lives entirely in 
England. Vesey, who suffered for some years before his death 
from a complaint most trying to those near him, died in 1785. 
From that time Mrs. Vesey, who before then had been 
described by Madame D'Arblay as the most wrinkled and time- 
beaten person she had ever seen, sank into a most melancholy 



C) Rutty's *' Natural History of the County Dublin," vol. ii., p. 188, and 
" Mineral Waters of Ireland," p. 166 ; Hoeys Dublin Mercury, April 28 to May 2, 
1767; Sleater's Dublin Chronicle, 1789-1790, p. 392; Beaufort's "Memoir of 
Ireland," p. 43 ; Lewis' " Dublin Guide," p. 172 ; " Views in Ireland," by Thomas 
Milton ; " Scenery of Ireland," by Jonathan Fisher ; An Englishman's " Tour 
in Ireland in 1813 and 1814," p. 169 ; " Excursion to Ireland by the Deputy 
Governor of the Irish Society, 1825," pp. 21, 26. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 55 



state, and before her death in 1792 had become quite insensible 
to all around her. Vesey has been blamed for the provision which 
he made for his wife, but from his references to her in his will 
it is evident that it was far from his intention that she should be 
deprived of any comfort. Any failure of income was probably due 
to the expensive mode of living which the Veseys adopted not 
only in Ireland, where their coach and four excited much 
admiration, but in England. She was, however, not allowed to 
want in any way, and her friends have recorded that Vesey's 
nephew and heir showed her all the attention of a devoted son (i). 

This nephew. Colonel George Vesey, who was an ofl&cer in the 
6th regiment of foot, and who served at Halifax and Gibraltar 
amongst other places, married in 1790, at Marlay, a daughter of 
the Right Hon. David La Touche, and subsequently settled down 
at Lucan and became member for Tuam in the Irish parliament. 
Of the history of Lucan in the nineteenth century it is outside the 
scope of this work to treat, and it is the less necessary as the 
subject has been dealt with in a handbook recently published (2). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

Thb ruined church of Lucan, which, as has been mentioned, adjoins 
the ruined castle of Lucan on its southern side, possesses no feature 
of architectural interest, and probably the walls represent a 
building of comparatively modern date which superseded a 
mediaeval structure. 

The advowson of the church, which was dedicated to the Blessed 
Virgin, was granted in the early part of the thirteenth century by 
Wirris Peche to the neighbouring Priory of St. Catherine. The 
value of the church was stated about that time to be eighteen 
marks, and we find a nephew of the Bishop of Meath mentioned as 
rector of Lucan and Roger as parson of Lucan. In 1279 Henry 
Serle was presented by the Crown to the church, then said to be in 
the King's gift owing to the minority of Henry Peche. At the 
beginning of the next century the value of the benefice was stated 
to be £20. After the dissolution of St. Thomas' Abbey, which 
succeeded to the advowson of Lucan Church as well as to the other 

(^) See authorities quoted on p. 63, note 1, and will of Right Hon. Agmondisham 
Vesey. 
(«) " Lucania," by Rev. WiUiam S. Donegan, C.C, DubUii. 1902. 



56 PARISH OF LUCAN. 



possessions of St. Catherine's Priory, the revenues of the church 
became impropriate and were leased by the Crown in the sixteenth 
century to many persons, including Sir William Sarsfield. It was 
then served for a time, together with the church of Esker, by a 
clergyman of Irish birth the Rev. John Ower, who in 1578 was 
granted the liberty of an English subject. At the beginning 
of the next century the church, as regarded both nave and 
chancel, was in good repair and provided with books, but 
before 1630 the vicar, Thomas Keating, who had married a Roman 
Catholic, had allowed the chancel to become ruinous. The value 
of the living was only £10 a year, and there were not more than 
five Protestants in the parish. Keating was succeeded by the 
Rev. Robert Jones, who has been already mentioned in connection 
with Saggart and Newcastle, and who, owing to the rebellion of 
1641, during which he suffered loss, as he alleged, at the hands of 
the Scurlocks of Rathcreedan and the Aliens of Coolmine, retired 
to live in Dublin. After the Restoration the parish of Lucan was 
united to the adjoining one of Leixlip and so remained until 
the nineteenth century. The succession of vicars has been — in 
1660 the Rev. John Harper, in 1670 the Rev. John Pooley, who 
became Bishop of Cloyne, in 1675 the Rev. Thomas Hawley, who 
became Archdeacon of Dublin; in 1715 the Rev. John Kyan, in 
1750 his son, the Rev. James Kyan (i), in 1773 the Rev. William 
Percy (2), in 1795 the Rev. Edward Berwick, the editor of '* The 
Rawdon Papers " (3), in 1820 the Rev. James Jones, in 1822 the 
Rev. Caesar Otway, the author of " A Tour in Connaught " and 
many other works (4), in 1826 the Rev. Fielding Ould, in 1836 
the Rev. Hugh Edward Prior, in 1856 the Rev. Edmund Trench, 
in 1859 the Rev. Charles Warren, in 1862 the Rev. Charles Holt 
Ensell, and in 1871 the Rev. Charles Maunsell Benson (6). 

(^) In Esker Churchyard there is a tombstone with the following inscrip- 
tion :— '• Here lie the remains of the Rev. John Kyan, who discharged the duty of 
a Faithful Shepherd 35 years in Leixlip and the united Parishes. After a long 
life of Piety and Virtue he entered upon ye Reward of his Actions May 18th, 
1750. The Revd. James Kyan departed this life October ye 6ih, 1773, in the — 
year of his age A Christian, a Christian." 

(') In the same Churchyard there is also a tombstone with the following 

inscription :— " Here lyeth the Body of the late Rev. Wm. Percy who died 

1795, in the 62nd year of his Age; Respected by all who knew him, and 
Lamented by every Friend.*' 

(') See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. iv., p. 414. 

{*) See ibid., vol. xlii., p. 345. 

(«) Arehdall's "Monasticon Hibemicum," p. 254; '* Crede Mihi,*' edited by 
Sir John Gilbert, p. 137 ; Fiants Elizabeth, passim ; Regal Visitation, 1615 ; 
Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 153 ; Depositions of 1641 ; Carte Papers, vol. 
xxi., f. 555 ; Visitation Books ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1750, p. 269. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 57 



The present Roman Catholic church at Lucan took the place of 
an older structure — the site of which is now occupied by the Petty 
Sessions Court-house — and doubtless the services of the Roman 
Catholic Church have been celebrated at Lucan from the sixteenth 
century. Under the arrangement made in 1615 the parishes of 
Lucan, Aderrig, Kilbride, Kilmahuddrick, Esker, Palmerston, 
Ballyfermot, Clondalkin and Drimnagh were formed into one 
parish known as the parish of Clondalkin and Lucan. The 
following appear amongst the parish priests of this parish — in 1680 
the Rev. Oliver Doyle, in 1714 the Rev. Richard Fox, and in 1744 
the Rev. Christopher Coleman. About 1765 Lucan and Palmerston 
were detached and made a separate parish, of which we find the 
following in charge — in 1770 the Rev. Michael Hall, in 1786 the 
Rev. Andrew Toole, in 1786 the Rev. Michael Ryan, and in 1798 
the Rev. John Dunne. Two years later the parishes of Clondalkin 
and Lucan were reunited, and the parish priests since that time 
have been — in 1800 the Rev. John Dunne, in 1837 the Rev. 
Matthias Kelly, in 1855 the Rev. John Moore, and in 1883 the 
Rev. James Baxter, the present incumbent. 



58 PARISH OF ADERRI6. 



Parish of Aderrig 

(».e., Aihdearg or the red ford). 



The Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands 
of Aderrig and Backstown. 

It now comprises the townlands of Adamstown, Aderrig, Backstown, Back- 
westonpark, and Cooldrinagh (».e., the comer of the blackthorn). 

The objects of antiquarian interest are the ruined church, and the castle of Adams- 
town. 



ADERRIG, WITH THE CASTLE OF 
ADAMSTOWN. 

The greater portioii of the small and little known parish of 
Aderrig lies to the west of the parishes of Lucan and Esker, but it 
includes also an isolated townland called Adamstown which is sur- 
rounded by lands in the parishes of Esker and Kilmactalway. 
Within this townland are the walls of an old tower house (}), and 
these, excepting the ruined church, are the only remains of ancient 
buildings to be found now in the parish. 

After the Anglo-Norman Conquest the lands of Aderrig and 
Cooldrinagh were granted to the lord of Leixlip, Sir Adam de 
Hereford. The lands of Cooldrinagh did not, however, long 
remain in his possession, and passed from him to John Moton, 
whose great-grandson Angelus, son of Philip Moton, had in 1289 
a suit regarding them with the adjacent Priory of St. Wolstan, in 
the County Kildare (2). Within the limits of the parish, or not 
far from them, lay the rath which has been mentioned in the 
history of Newcastle Lyons as belonging to the royal manor. As 
stated there, this rath was in 1291 granted by the Crown to Henry 
le Marshall, a merchant of Dublin, and in the fourteenth century 
we find a messuage and eighty-five acres in Marshallsrath, near 
Aderrig, held under the Crown by various persons, including in 
1309 Thomas, son of Henry le Marshall, in 1326 William Douce, 
in 1343 Richard Pedelow, and in 1395 John Philip. Before 1384 



(^) See " The Lesser Castles of the County Dublin," by E. R. M'C. Dix in The 
Irish Builder for 1897, p. 12. 

(*) Mills* " Norman Settlement," p. 170. 



ADERRIG, WITH THE CASTLE OF ADAMSTOWN. 59 

Sir John Cruise, of Merrion, had acquired some interest in the 
lands of Marshallsrath, and in the fifteenth century it is mentioned 
as portion of the property of his successors, the Fitzwilliams (i). 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the FitzGerald family 
were possessed of a messuage and nearly fifty acres of land at 
Aderrig, which James FitzGerald forfeited on his attainder, and 
at the same time the Vicars Choral of St. Patrick's Cathedral 
appear as owners of some seventy acres of arable and pasture land, 
together with a small wood, a park called Roe's croft, and a castle, 
in the townlands of Aderrig and Marshallsrath (2). After the 
dissolution of the Cathedral the possessions of the Vicars Choral at 
Aderrig were leased by the Crown to Chief Justice Luttrell, and 
subsequently were granted to Sir Nicholas White, of St. Catherine's, 
under whom they were held by John Dongan. About the middle 
of that century the lands of Backweston, which had belonged to 
the Priory of St. Wolstan, were in the possession of Sir John 
Allen, sometime Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who, as has been 
stated in connection with St. Catherine's, succeeded to the property 
of that Priory (3). 

Adamstown Castle derives its name from a family called Adam, 




Adamstown Castle in 1775. 

From a drawing by Gabriel Beranger, 

which was established in the sixteenth century in the parish of 
Esker, and probably belonged to Thomas Adam, who died in the 

(M Sweetman's Calendar, 1252-1295, passim ; F&tent RoUs, pp. 34, 155: 
Memoranda Roll, 16 and 17 Edw. III. 

(2) Mason's Collection for History of Dublin in British Museum, Egerton MS. 
Nos. 1773, f. 175, and Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral,'^ p. 95. 

(3) Fiants Edw. VI., Nos. 97, 1095; Eliz., No. 1558; Exchequer Inquisition. 
CO. Dublin, EUz., No. 165. 



60 PARISH OF ADERRIG. 



year 1556 and desired to be buried in Esker Churchyard. He 
was a stout English yeoman, and in his will, which he made when 
'' whole in mind and perfect in remembrance although sick in 
body," he gives a long list of live stock and of household goods, 
and mentions his wife Bell Gay don, his two daughters, and his 
brother Nicholas Adam Q). 

When the Commonwealth was established a century later there 
was stated to be on the lands of Aderrig only an old castle, but on 
the lands of Backweston there was * * a good fair house " with 
some cabins. This house was then occupied by Thomas Sedgrave, 
a member of a Dublin mercantile family — of which we shall see more 
at Cabra — and his family and servants formed a considerable part 
of the fifteen persons returned as inhabiting the lailds. After the 
Restoration the Whites and Aliens, who had been dispossessed 
under the Commonwealth, once more appear as owners of the lands 
in Aderrig parish, together with Arthur, second Viscount 
Ranelagh, who seems to have succeeded to some Church property 
in the parish through his grandfather. Archbishop Jones; and 
Robert Scarborough, who has been mentioned as resident at an 
earlier date at Newcastle Lyons, is returned as the principal in- 
habitant in the townland of Aderrig (2). 

Backweston House had then become the residence of Sir Bryan 
O'Neill, who was both a baronet and a knight. He was a 
descendant of the Chiefs of Claneboy, and proved himself a gallant 
soldier, first in Holland and afterwards on the royalist side in the 
Civil War in England. In relating the vicissitudes of the O'Neill 
family Sir Bernard Burke has told how Sir Bryan O'Neill, 
with a few others, tried to rally the royal troops at the rout of 
Newburn, and how on the hard fought field of Edgehill he 
rallied the dragoons with undaunted courage, and finally saved 
Charles I. from being taken prisoner. Honours came to Sir Bryan 
O'Neill, but without corresponding wealth, and after the Restora- 
tion he appears to have tried to add to his slender income by 
sending wool to France, a trade for which, on account of his 
constant loyalty and good service he was given a licence by the 
King. 

Sir Bryan O'Neill, who was twice married, first to Jane Finch 
and secondly to Sarah Savage, whose mother was a daughter of 

(M WiU of Thomas Adam. 

(2) Down Survey Map ; Survey of Uppercross and Newcastle ; Book of Survey 
and Distribution ; Hearth Money Roll. 



ADERRIG, WITH THE CASTLE OF ADAMSTOWN. 61 



Hugh, first Viscount Montgomery, of Great Ards, died about 
1670, and was succeeded by his son, who bore the same name. 
Sir Bryan O'Neill, the second baronet, has been already mentioned 
in the history of Stillorgan in connection with his marriage to the 
widow of James Wolverston, who was a sister of Christopher 
Plunkett, tenth Lord Dunsany. He was educated as a lawyer at 
Gray's Inn, which he entered in 1664, and, as stated in the history 
of Stillorgan, was appointed by James II. in 1687 as one of the 
justices of the King's Bench in Ireland. He died in 1694, and 
with him may be fitly closed the history of Aderrig as well as of 
his line, which declined, as Sir Bernard Burke has told us, to 
the direst extremity of poverty and misery (i). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The ruined church of Aderrig, which lies about two miles to the 
south-west of Lucan village, stands in an open field unprotected 




Aderrig: Church. 

From a 'photograph by Mr. Thomas Mason. 

by any fence, and its walls are rapidly disappearing. Its dimen- 
sions were some thirty-six feet by eighteen feet, and its only 

(1) Subsidy Rolls ; G. E. C.'s '* Complete Baronetage," vol. ii., p. 215 ; Burke s 
«' Vicissitudes of Families," vol. i., pp. 122-136 ; Carte Papers, vol. xliii., p. 245 ; 
Will of Sir Brian O'Neill. 



62 PARISH OF ADERRIG. 



architectural feature the lancet-headed doorway shown in the 
picture. The church was one of those confirmed to the Arch- 
bishop of Dublin after the Anglo-Norman Conquest, and in the 
first half of the thirteenth century was granted by Archbishop 
Luke to St. Patrick's Cathedral with a direction that five marks 
of the revenues were to be devoted to providing lights for the altar 
of the Blessed Virgin, and that the residue was to be distributed 
amongst the vicars celebrating Mass there. The revenues were 
then considerable, and subsequently the church was erected into a 
prebend. Amongst the rectors and prebendaries we find, about 
1220 John de Daunteseia, about 1279 Richard de Duckworth, who 
exchanged Aderrig with Roger de Derby, rector of half of the 
church of Leixlip; in 1310 Adam de Stratton, and in 1328 John 
Kingeston, under whom the duty was performed by Galfred, the 
chaplain. The right to the presentation of the church was at 
the last-mentioned date the subject of a suit between the Arch- 
bishop of Dublin and St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was decided 
in favour of the former, and a few years later an inquisition 
determined that the church was in the diocese of Dublin and not 
of Glendalough, as some persons had alleged. In 1389 the Crown 
presented William Middleton to the living, and in 1395 Arch- 
bishop Welby granted the entire revenues to the Vicars Choral of 
St. Patrick's Cathedral. The faithful then seldom forgot in their 
wills the churches with which they had any connection, and in 
1475 Joan Drywer, of Crumlin, bequeathed twelve pence to **the 
works of the church of Aderrig " and an overcloth for the altar. 
After the dissolution of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1547 Chief 
Justice Luttrell undertook, on the possessions of the Vicars Choral 
being leased to him, to find a fit chaplain for Aderrig. At the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century the church, although wanting 
repair, was still fit for use. In 1615 it was served by the Rev. 
Emanuel Bullock, already mentioned in connection with Saggart, 
and in 1630 by the Rev. Robert Jones, curate of Newcastle, but 
their duties were not arduous, as the inhabitants were all Roman 
Catholics. Subsequently the parish of Aderrig became united to 
that of Lucan, and the church was allowed to fall into ruin (i). 



(i) '* Antiquarian Rambles in the County Dublin," by John S. Sloane, in The 
Irish Literary Gazette^ vol. i., p. 260 ; Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," 
p. 69 ; " Crede Mihi," edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 137 ; Alan's " Liber Niger," p. 
755 ; D' Alton's " History of County Dublin," p. 672 ; Berry's Rej^ister of Dublin 
Wills, 1457-1483, p. 150 ; Regal Visitation, 1615 ; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, 
p. 154 ; Visitation Books. 



CASTLE BAGOT* 63 



Parish of Kilmactalway 

{i.e., KUmacialeun, the Church of MactcUeun, a Leinster chieftain, or Kilmac- 

talmach, the Church of the son of Talmach) Q"), 

♦ 

This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands 
of Brownstown, Galderstown, Galbrettstown, Grange, Jordanstown, Kil- 
mactalway, Loughtown, and Salles. 

It now contains the townlands of Aungierstown and Ballybane {i.e., the whitish 
town), Ballymakaily (».c., Mac Haly's town), Brownstowij, Clutterland {i.e., 
shelter land), Coolscuddan {i.e., the comer of herrings), Collierstown, Grange, 
Jordanstown, Kilmactalway, Loughtown Upper and Lower, Milltown, and 
Mullauns {i.e., the little flat summits). 

The objects of antiquarian interest are the ruined church, and castle of Grange. 

There is a graveyard with a well, known as the relickan or little graveyard well, 
in the townland of Lower Loughtown. 



CASTLE BAGOT. 

The parish of Kilmactalway, which lies between the parishes of 
Aderrig and Newcastle, on the border of the County Kildare, and 
is intersected by the Grand Canal and the Great Southern and 
Western Railway, contains as its most important feature the house 
and demesne known as Castle Bagot. Some seventy years ago this 
place, then the seat of the late Mr. James John Bagot, d.l., greatly 
excited the admiration of John D 'Alton (2), who speaks with 
enthusiasm of its broad pastures, on which a herd of Durham 
cattle grazed, and of its gardens and shrubberies, in which there 
were a willow brought from Napoleon's grave and a design in box 
exhibiting a political watchword of that day, " Reform and 
Mulgrave." Of ancient buildings the parish has none except the 
church and an unimportant castle called Grange, now incorporated 
in a modern house (3). 

At the time of the Anglo-Norman Conquest, as already stated 
in the history of Newcastle Lyons, the lands of Kilmactalway, 



(*) See "The Song of Dermot and the Earl/' edited by G. H. Orpen, p. 318, 
and " The Martjnwlogy of Donegal," p. 291. 

(«) See D' Alton's " History of County Dublin," p. 687. 

(?) See " The Lesser Castles of the County Dublin," by E. R. M*C, Dix, in 
The Irish BuUder for 1897, p. 22. 



64 PARISH OP KILMACTALWAT. 

which were included in a district known as Lymerhin, were given 
to the Irish chief MacGillamocholmog, but in 1215 possession of 
them was resumed by the Crown in order to enlarge the royal 
manor of Newcastle. This extension gave opportunity for the 
erection of a mill for the use of the King's tenants on the River 
Griff een, which has been already noticed at Lucan, and which 
flows through Kilmactalway parish, and round this mill there 
sprang up a village which became known as the King's Milltown, 
in order to distinguish it from another village of the same name 
which stood close to it. The latter belonged to the Church, which 
owned some of the lands within the limits of the present parish of 
Kilmactalway. At the close of the thirteenth century a monastic 
establishment had a settlement there, which in 1294 was returned 
as unable to pay any taxation, and at the time of the dissolution 
of St. Patrick's Cathedral the lands of Aungierstown and Ballybane 
and the village of Milltown appear as part of the Dean's corps. 
There was then in the village a tenement known as Clogher's Park, 
and the tenant of it, as well as the Dean's other tenants, was 
under obligation to do sundry service for his landlord, which was 
sometimes commuted for a little pig sent to him in autumn (i). 

The beginning of the seventeenth century saw a considerable 
amount of the King's lands in Kilmactalway in possession of the 
Russell family, already mentioned in connection with Newcastle 
Lyons, and on this holding there was a small hamlet consisting of 
a castle, a house and three cottages, as well as another house 
which lay near the churchyard. Under John Russell, the Prior 
of the Petty Canons of St. Patrick's Cathedral, these premises were 
occupied by Richard Walse and John Mey, who appear to have 
married two of his sisters; and on his death in 1546 his nephew, 
William Mey, succeeded to them. After prolonged litigation with 
John, son of Patrick Russell, described as late of Newcastle, and 
with Christopher Bassenet, a nephew of Dean Bassenet, who 
appears to have then held these premises as well as the Dean's 
village of Milltown, William Mey established his title to the 
property. Subsequently, in 1561, he assigned it to John, son of 
Patrick Mey, a namesake of whom, resident at Kilmactalway, had 
shortly before met his death by violence. During the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth, a holding described as ''a water mill in the 



(1) Christ Church Deeds, No. 150, and Mason's "History of St. Patrick's 
Cathedral," p. 28. 



CASTLE BAGOT, 65 



King's Milltown and the windmill-land in the manor of Newcastle 
of the Queen's old inheritance," was leased to various persons (}). 

In the middle of the seventeenth century, at the time of the 
establishment of the Commonwealth, the lands of Kilmactalway 
were still owned by the Mey family, and were occupied by some 
seventeen persons, of whom the chief was *' the widow Harte," 
alias Elinor Archbold. The lands of Milltown, on which there 
was a castle as well as other dwellings, were owned by Thomas 
Taylor, and were occupied by about a hundred persons, including 
James Barnewall, a gentleman with a large farm establishment, 
Nicholas Harford a miller, a patriarch called Tirlagh Byrne, 
described as " a gentleman of a hundred or thereabouts," with a 
household of some thirty in number, and some descendants of 
William RoUes, already mentioned as one of the first representa- 
tives in parliament for Newcastle Lyons. Loughtown, on which 
there was a castle, and which had before the rebellion belonged 
to the Scurlocks of Rathcreedan, was then in possession of the 
Percevals; Galderstown and Galbrettstown (which belonged to the 
Vicars Choral of St. Patrick's Cathedral), of Lord Ranelagh ; the 
Grange of the Fagans of Feltrim ; and Jordanstown of the Aylmers 
of Lyons (2) . After the Restoration the representative of the Mey 
family, Matthew Mey, who is described as of Dublin, and whose 
father, James, son of Matthew Mey, had died in 1643, was suc- 
cessful in proving himself under the Act of Settlement an innocent 
Roman Catholic, and entitled to the Kilmactalway property, from 
which he had been dispossessed; but he does not appear to have 
become a resident in the parish, in which the principal inhabitants 
in 1664 were Richard Eustace at Milltown, James Harte at 
Jordanstown, and Patrick Thunder at the Grange (3). 

It is not until the later part of the eighteenth century that the 
Bagots appear as resident at Kilmactalway. The first of them to 
settle there was John Bagot, who was a son of Mark Bagot, of 
Newtown Omone, in the County Kildare, and grandson of another 
Mark Bagot who represented the borough of Carlow in James the 
Second's parliament. John Bagot was twice married, first to a 



( * ) Exchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Elizabeth, No. 220 : Fiants Philip and 
Mary, Nos. 264, 268; Elizabeth, Nos. 1501, 2695, 6347 ; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 
James I., pp. 189, 292. 

(2) Survey of Uppercross and Newcastle ; Down Survey Maps ; Book of Survey 
and Distribution. , 

(') Decree of Innocents, i. m. 70; Hearth Money RoU, 



66 PARISH OF KILMACTALWAY. 



Miss Walsh, and secondly to a Miss Dease (i), and it was on his 
marriage to the latter lady that in 1779 he came to Kilmactalway. 
He left, on his death in 1792, besides other children by his second 
wife, James John Bagot, the owner of Castle Bagot, in the first 
half of the nineteenth century (2). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

Kilmactalway Church which stands in the grounds of Castle 
Bagot, although of late date is much defaced. It was of consider- 
able dimensions, measuring fifty-four feet by seventeen feet two 
inches, but does not appear to have been divided into nave and 
chancel. The north wall is now gone, and the east window is 
built up and covered with ivy. In the south wall, as one goes 
westward, there are a late window with two oblong lights, the 
shaft of which is gone, another plain oblong window, a pointed 
window and a slightly pointed door. The west end has a trefoil 
headed light, and apparently a bell chamber on the top of the 
gable. 

The history of the church gains interest from the fact that it 
gives name to a prebendal stall in St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is 
said by Monck Mason to have been dedicated to St. Magnanus, and 
was one of the churches reserved after the Anglo-Norman Conquest 
to the Archbishop of Dublin. About 1220, when the church was 
valued at twenty marks, Master J. de Lucumbe was the rector, 
and in 1296, during a vacancy in the see of Dublin, Richard de 
Manton was appointed to the rectory by the Crown (3). In 1366 
the church was annexed to the precentorship of St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, and in 1466 was made the corps of a distinct prebend, 
which was placed second in rank. The church was served some 



(M Burke's Landed Gentry, ed. 1858, under Bagots of Castle Bagot; D' Alton's 
" History of County Dublin," p. 686, and " King James' Irish Army List," p. 
800 ; Malcomson'3 " Carlow Parliamentary Roll," p. 62 ; Registry of I)eeds, Lib. 
337, p. 491 ; Wills of Mark and John Bagot ; Exshavfs Magazine for 1784, p. 
743. for 1791, p. 504, and for 1792, p. 168. 

(*) In Newcastle Churchyard there is a tomb with the following inscription : — 
" Pray for the Souls of those Members of the Bagot family who are interred herein ; 
the last of whom, James John Bagot. Esq. D.L. of Castle Bagot, County of Dublin, 
died aged 76 years on the ^th of June 1860; Pray also for the soul of Ellen 
Maria Bagot, his Widow, interred herein, who died at Rathgar on 19 Sept. 1871. 
R.LP." 

(3) " Credo Mihi," edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 138; Sweetman's Calendar, 
1293-1301, pp. 130, 276 ; 1302-1307, p. 239. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 67 



years later, in 1481, by a priest known as Sir Henry of Kilmac- 
talway, and amongst the early prebendaries we find, in 1495 
Richard Mylyne, in 1524 John Triguran, who was also Arch- 
deacon of Kells and custos of St. Stephen's Hospital in Dublin, 
and in 1570 Robert Commander, rector of Tarporley and chaplain 
to Sir Henry Sidney while Lord Deputy of Ireland, who left some 
interesting historical manuscripts now in the British Museum. 

At the time of the dissolution of St. Patrick's Cathedral the 
prebendary had, besides the tithes, a small glebe consisting of 
an old orchard and two small parks or gardens; and the church 
was served by a curate, who was allowed twenty-six shillings and 
eight pence, besides the altarages. This payment James Walsh, of 
London, to whom the rectory was then leased by the Crown, wae 
supposed to continue, but after the re-establishment of the 
Cathedral we find the church derelict and the rector proceeded 
against for non-residence (i). At the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, in 1615, the nave and chancel were returned as in good 
repair, but in 1630 Archbishop Bulkeley, who then held the 
prebend m commendam, stated that he was rebuilding 
the church. There were only twelve persons then attending the 
church, but it had an endowment, as the curate reported of some 
forty acres, the profit of which, he alleged, was withheld through 
the wrongdoing of Mr. William Rolles in taking away the deeds. 
Amongst the curates we find, in 1615 Richard Wiborow, afterwards 
vicar of San try, and in 1630 Robert Jones, in 1639 Christopher 
Cardiffe, and in 1646 Henry Birch, who have been already men- 
tioned in connection with Saggard and Newcastle. After the 
Restoration the church does not appear to have been again used, 
and in the eighteenth century the glebe was reported to have been 
lost (2). 



(^) Mason's ** History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 51 ; Berry's Register 
of Dublin Wills, 1457-1483, p. 163; Christ Church Deed, No. 361; Fiant 
Henry VIII., No. 6, Edward VI., No. 87 ; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, 
Philip and Mary, No. 17 ; Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy^ vol. xxv., p. 554. 

\«) Regal Visitation of 1615; Archbishop Bulkeley' s Report, p. 154; Adams' 
*' History of gantry," p. 67 ; Visitation Books ; Mason's " History of St» Patrjck'a 
Cathedral," p. 51. 



F '1 



68 PARISH OF KILBRIDE. 



Parish of Kilbride 

(i.e., the Church of St. Bridget). 



This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as consisting of the townlands 

of Baldonan and Kilbride. 
It now contains the townlands of Baldonnell {i.e., Donnell's or Donnan's town) 

Little, Lower and Upper, Kilbride, and Kilcarbery. 
The only object of antiquarian interest is the ruined church. 



BALDONNELL HOUSE AND THE 
SURROUNDING LANDS. 

Baldonnell House is now the principal residence in the small 
parish of Kilbride, which lies to the east of the parish of Kilmac- 
talway. Of a castle which formerly stood in the parish there are 
little, if any, remains. 

After the Anglo-Norman Conquest the lands of Kilbride were 
held under the Crown, for the service of a foot sergeant or payment 
of five shillings, by the Comyns of Balgriffin, and formed part of 
the manor of that somewhat distant place. About the year 1270 
the Comyns' property was temporarily in the hands of the King, 
and the escheator accounted for rents received from the betaghs 
of Kilbride. The castle was built before the sixteenth century, 
and was leased in 1537 to John Gibbons, with a reversion 
to Chief Justice Aylmer, and in 1570 to Thomas Bathe, 
whose family about that time acquired the manor of Balgriffin. 
The castle appears to have been occupied by Thomas Bathe, and 
in 1570 George Bassenet was pardoned for the robbery of cows 
from Thomas Bathe, of Kilbride, and for burglary at Baldonan. 
In the early part of the seventeenth century the Bathes were still 
in possession of the Kilbride lands, but at the time of the 
Restoration they had been succeeded by the family of Carberry, 
from whom one of the townlands takes its name, and the Luttrells 
appear as owners of Baldonan. The castle was then in occupation 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



69 



of Francis Carberry, who was succeeded by his widow, and later 
on by Alderman John Carberry, whose country residence was at 
Grace Dieu Q-). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The ruined church of Kilbride, which lies between Castle Bagot 
and the Naas road, as seen from a distance, gives little promise of 
interest, but a closer examination of its overgrown walls shows it 
to have been of unusual structure. It was possibly built in an 
earth fort about one hundred and twenty feet in diameter, for 
the form and height of the graveyard even to the north, where 



■ -s':--'^^^^P^-^-'«- '■-' ' 


4* '-- '%%■■ *>■' 









Kilbride Cliurcli. 

From a photograph by Mr. Thomas J. Westropp, 

burial was infrequent, are unusual, and other traces of earth 
works are visible in the surrounding field. The oratory, which is 
built of very small stones, was a tiny one, about nineteen feet by 
twelve feet, and is not truly rectangular. There was an eastern 
window, and at least one light in the south wall, which probably 
had a second window where a gap now occurs. A recess remains 

(') Pipe RoU, No. 6 ; MiUs' " Norman Settlement," pp. 171, 173 ; Fiants Henry 
VIII., No. 66; Elizabeth, Nos. 1498, 3305; Exchequer Fine Roll; Census of 
1659 ; Subsidy Rolls ; Hearth Money Rolls ; Will of John Carberry. 



70 



PARISH OF KILBRIDE. 



to the north, and the walls, which are at present six feet high, are 
pierced by several small square holes like " putlog holes " for 
scaffolding. There was a tower at the west end, which contained 
on the ground floor to the north a little cell, four and a half feet 




190it 



'^.IfCfwIKflifiJ 



10 FEET 

» ' ' ■ ' ' ' '-'-'-« 

Plan of Kilbride Cburcb. 

By Mr^ Thomas J- Westropp. 

long by thirty inches wide, lit by a slit. Next this was an 
arched porch, from which a doorway opened into a curved recess 
for a spiral stair now all removed, only the recess and one side of 
a window marking its position. There was evidently a priest's 
residence above those, but the upper part has been quite thrown 
down. 

Of the history of the church nothing is known beyond the fact 
that it formed portion of the corps of the Dean of St. Patrick's 
Cathedral. So far back as the year 1547, when the dissolution of 
the Cathedral took place, it is styled an old chapel, and was valued 
with a cottage near it at twelve pence a year, and in 1660 it is 
again mentioned as an old building in connection with an acre 
of land which the proprietor of Kilbride was alleged to have taken 
from the Cathedral (i). 

(' ) Mason's « History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 29. 31. 



RILMAHUDDRIGK. 71 



Parish of Kilmahuddrick 

(t.c, the Church of Cudrick or Cuthbert), 

♦ 

This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the townland 
of Kilmahuddrick, and now consists of the same* 

The only object of antiquarian interest is the ruined church. 



KILMAHUDDRICK. 

This parish, which is the smallest in the metropolitan county, 
lies, like the parish of Kilbride, to the east of the parish of 
Kilmactalway, but more to the north, and is separated from the 
parish of Kilbride by a narrow piece of Clondalkin parish. 

The lands belonged to the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 
Dublin. In 1294, it is stated that the monks at Kilmahuddrick 
were unable to bear any charges, and at the time of the dissolution 
of the Abbey in 1539 the possessions of the Abbey at Kilmahud- 
drick are returned as a house and some fifty acres of land held by 
one Patrick Holder. In addition the Abbey owned close by the 
Grange of Ballichelmer, or New Grange, which contained two 
houses as well as cottages and some hundred and fifty acres of 
land. Towards the close of the sixteenth century Kilmahuddrick 
was assigned by the Crown in augmentation of the salaries of 
the secretary's office, and in 1591 enquiry was directed as to the 
reason this order had not been carried out. In the seventeenth 
century the lands of Kilmahuddrick and New Grange came into 
the possession of the Sedgraves of Cabra. In 1650 we find New 
Grange occupied by a farmer called Nicholas Wolverston and 
twenty other persons, including a weaver and a " greymerchant,*' 
and in 1666 the lands of Kilmahuddrick were held by Patrick 
Thunder (i). 



(1) Mills' " Norman Settlement," p. 63 ; Christ Church Deed, No. 150 ; Char- 
tularies of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. ii., pp. 59, 60 ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 
1588-1592, p. 407 ; Survey of Uppercross and Newcastle ; Subsidy Rolls. 



72 



PARISH OF KILMAHUDDBICR. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The ruined church of Kilmahuddrick, which stands about a mile 
to the north-west of the village of Clondalkin, although devoid of 
ornamental features and mainly of late fifteenth century work, is 
of considerable interest. It stands in the middle of an open field, 
and the ground round it has been raised considerably by burials. 




Kilmahuddrick Cburcli. 

From a photograph by Mr, Thomas J. Westropp. 

It consists of a nave and chancel with a broad pointed arch, not 
bonding into the nave walls which abut against it, and with 
sockets for a screen or rood beam. The building is extremely off 
the square. The chancel varies from nineteen feet three inches 
at the northern, to twenty feet one inch at the southern wall, and 
is fourteen feet two inches wide. The nave varies similarly from 
twenty feet ten inches to twenty-one feet four inches, and is 
seventeen feet wide. The walls are also of varying thickness. The 
features are of little beauty. In the east wall of the chancel there 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



73 



are a slightly pointed high recess, an east window with slightly 
arched light and splay, and a low ambry. The south window has 
a tomb recess under the sill; the northern light is, like the 
southern, a mere slit. Next the chancel arch there were two 
arched recesses, the northern sufficiently perfect to show the 
remains of a window, the southern fallen. The nave has a slit 
light to each side of a little ambry, like the two in the south-east 
angle of the chancel, and a door and slit in the west end. The 




7i7 



10' 







10' 



Plan of KUmahuddrick Church. 

By Mr. Thomas J, Westropp, 



20 PEET 



latter is to the south of the door, and may have been a " hagio- 
scope," as it looks towards the altar. It does not (as elsewhere has 
been stated) command the door. The upper part of the west end 
above the door has been rebuilt with a thinner wall. The upper 
part of the side walls adjoining it were also rebuilt. There was a 
light above the west door (i). 

The church was dedicated to St. Cuthbert, and it has been 
stated in a very authoritative manner that Kilmahuddrick was the 
birth place of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, but on this theory 
modern research has thrown doubt (2). The earliest record respect- 
ing the ecclesiastical history of the place is a deed executed in 1186, 
which records that by amicable arrangement Master Osbertus, of 



D Cf. "Kilmahuddrick, near aondalkin," by E. R. M'C. Dix in Journal 
R.S.A.I., vol. xxviii., p. 165. 

(2) Cf. Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. ii., p. 287, and Dictionary of 
National Biography, vol. xiii., p. 359. 



74 PARISH OF KILMAHUBDRIGK. 

Clondalkin, gave up to St. Mary's Abbey all right which he and 
his church had to the lands of Balichelmer and to the chapel and 
tithes there. Subsequently, in 1220, the church of Kilmahuddrick 
was stated to be in the gift of the Archbishop of Dublin, and in 
1540 the church of St. Cuthbert of Kilmahuddrick, being insuffi- 
cient for the support of a clergyman was, together with what was 
then styled the parish of Newgrange, united to Clondalkin — an 
arrangement that, with an unimportant exception when it was 
united to Tallaght, has since continued (i). 



(M Chartularies of St. Mar/s Abbey, vol. i., p. 173 ; " Crede Mihi," edited by 
Sir John Gilbert, p. 137 ; Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 148 ; 
Regal Visitation of 1615. 



PARISH OF ESKER. 75 



Parish of Esker 

{i.e., Eiscir, or the sandy ridge), 

» 

This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the Townlands 
of Ballydowd, Ballyowen, Coldcut, Finnstown, Kishoge, and Rowlagh. 

It now contains the Townlands of Ballydowd {i.e., O'Dowd's town), Ballyowen 
(i.e., the town of Owen), Coldcut, Esker North and South, Finnstown (or the 
town of Fyan, a family name). Glebe, Hermitage, Kishoge {i.e., the little 
wicker causeway), Rowlagh {i.e., the red land), St. Edmondsbury, and 
Woodville. 

The objects of antiquarian interest are the ruined church and the castle of Bally- 
owen. 



ESKEa WITH HERMITAGE, AND ITS 
NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

The parish of Esker, with the exception of an isolated portion 
enclosed in the adjoining parishes of Clondalkin and Palmerston, 
lies between the parish of Kilmactalway and the river Liffey, and 
is bounded to the west by the parishes of Aderrig and Lucan, and 
to the east by the parishes in which the isolated portion, consisting 
of the townlands of Rowlagh and Coldcut, is situated. Two large 
demesnes known as Hermitage and Woodville lie to the north of 
the road from Dublin to Lucan which intersects the parish, and 
another demesne known as Finnstown lies within its limits to the 
west of a road leading from Lucan to Newcastle Lyons. Besides 
the modern houses which these demesnes contain, there are in the 
parish the remains of a castle known as Ballyowen, and the ruins 
of another castle formerly stood on the Finnstown lands (i). 

The lands of Esker, which are so called from their being the com- 
mencement of a ridge of sand hills which have been traced across 
Ireland from that point to the County Galway, formed one of the 
four royal manors in the County Dublin, two of which, Saggart 
and Newcastle, have been already noticed in this history. At the 
beginning of the thirteenth century there was a manor house close 



(1) See " The Lesser Castles of the County Dublin." by E. R. M'C. Dix, in 
The Irish Builder for 1897, p. 22 ; Cooper's Note Book. 



76 I»ARISfi OF t:SK£R. 



to the church of Esker, and one of the lessees of the manor was 
granted by the Crown land called Liscaillah near to it for the pur- 
pose of making enclosures for cattle. The manor was then gener- 
ally leased to middlemen, and amongst these appears William 
FitzGuido, the first Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, who held 
Esker church in right of his deanery. About the close of that cen- 
tury we find the names of many persons connected with Esker, 
including William le White, Thomas de Coventry, Nicholas de 
Berkeley, Henry Kissok, whose family doubtless obtained its name 
from the townland of Kishoge, Adam of Esker and Dermot of 
Ballydowd(i). 

Dermot of Ballydowd was possibly a descendant of the Irish 
chieftain more than once mentioned in this history, who held, the 
title of MacGillamocholmog at the time of the Anglo-Norman in- 
vasion. The latter was married to a daughter of Dermot Mac 
Murrough, King of Leinster, and under the influence of his father- 
in-law, as the present Deputy Keeper of thei Records in Ireland 
has told us in his paper on '' The Norman Settlement in Leinster," 
tacitly acquiesced for a time in the establishment of the Anglo- 
Norman power. But later on, after Dermot Mac Murrough's 
death, MacGillamocholmog thought of joining the Danes in their 
attack on the Anglo-Norman garrison in Dublin, and it was 
only with difficulty that Miles Cogan, the Anglo-Norman com- 
mander, induced him to stand neutral. The wisdom of this 
diplomacy was proved in the result, for when MacGillamocholmog 
saw the Anglo-Normans gaining the day he attached himself to 
their side and completed the rout of the Danes. For his services 
he was rewarded by grants of land, including, as we have seen 
under Newcastle Lyons, the district of Lymerhin near Esker, and 
a large tract of land near Grey stones, in the County Wicklow. 
At the latter place his descendants, who ceased to use the title of 
MacGillamocholmog, and were called John son of Dermot or Ralph 
son of John, as the case might be, had their principal residence. 
But in the opinion of Mr. Mills they had also a residence near 
Esker, and it is not impossible that it was situated on the lands of 
Ballydowd, and that Dermot of Ballydowd was a descendant of 
the last MacGillamocholmog. 

A list of the tenants who held the lands of Esker from the 
Crown during the next three centuries would be of little interest. 



(') Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1307, passim. 



ESKER, WITS HERMITAGE, AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 77 



At first the whole manor was held from the Crown by one person, 
but in the sixteenth century the lands had become divided, and 
rent was paid by a number of tenants. In both cases the lessees* 
knowledge of Esker was only slight, and confined in many 
cases to receiving the revenues. Several religious establishments 
acquired property in the parish, either under the Crown or inde- 
pendent of it, and amongst these we find St. Mary's Abbey, whose 
possessions on its dissolution became merged in the lands belonging 
to the Crown; the Priory of the Holy Trinity, St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, the Hospital of St. John the Baptist without New Gate, 
the Guild of St. Anne in St. Audoen's Church, the College of 
Killeen, and the Church of Esker. Of the inhabitants and their 
holdings it is difficult to obtain information (i). Of whe former 
Gregory Tweddell, who resided about the middle of the sixteenth 
century at Bally do wd, and is described as a yeoman and soldier, 
and Alderman Patrick Browne, who resided about the end of that 
century at Kishoge, and is described as a merchant, may perhaps 
be taken as typical examples ; and as some indication of their sur- 
roundings, the King's meadow in Ballydowd, the King's mill in 
Esker, a garden called after St. Finian, the patron saint of Esker, 
St. Mary's half -acre, and the Ash park may be mentioned (2). 

Members of the Browne family were still resident in the parish 
in the beginning of the seventeenth century; in 1622 Joseph 
Browne was living at Finnstown, and in 1633 William Browne 
at Rowlagh. At the same time the castle of Ballyowen appears 
as a residence of importance occupied in 1620 by Christopher 
Taylor, to whom the rank of gentleman is given, and in 1630 by 
Lamerick Nottingham, whose rank was that of an esquire. The 
latter is stated by Archbishop Bulkeley to have been a zealous 
Roman Catholic, and to have shown much hospitality to the clergy 
of his church. At the time he made his will, in 1648, he held, 
besides his possessions at Ballyowen, lands and a castle at Finns- 
town, the mill of Esker, and the lands and castle of Nangor in 
Clondalkin parish. He had been twice married, first to a sister 



(f ) A court book used by the seneschal of the manors of Esker and Crumlin 
is preserved in Marsh's Library, but it only covers a period of five years, from 
1592-1597. 

(«) D' Alton's *' History of the County Dublin," pp. 645-653 ; Christ Church 
Deeds, pdssim ; Mason's ** History of St. Patrick's Cathedral,** pp. 29, 95 ; Fiants 
Henry VIII. to Elizabeth, passim ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1509-1573, 
p. 163, and of Carew State Papers, 1589-1600, p. 189 ; Exchequer Inquisition, 
Co. Dublin, Mary, No. 5, PhUip and Mary, No. 25, Elizabeth, Nos. 74, 81, 119, 
Jac. I., No. 136. 



78 PARISH OF ESKER. 



of William Sarsfield of Lucan, and secondly to a sister of Robert 
Ussher of Crumlin. In his will he makes special provision for 
the latter lady on account of " her great charge of children." In 
all he left fourteen, but some of them, including his eldest son 
William Nottingham, whom we find residing at Ballyowen in 1650, 
had already arrived at man's estate. At Ballydowd there was 
then also a castle occupied by George Forster, a member of an old 
Dublin mercantile family connected with St. Audoen's parish, and 
his children. His establishment was a large one, and amongst the 
forty inhabitants of the Ballydowd lands there appear a maltster, 
a weaver, ** a knitter," and several farm servants, including "a 
hay ward " (i) . 

But the most important person connected with Esker parish at 
that time was Robert Kennedy, Chief Remembrancer of the 
Exchequer, and member of parliament for the borough of Kil- 
dare, who was created after the Restoration a baronet as Sir 
Robert Kennedy of Newtownmount-Kennedy, in the County 
Wicklow. That place, which had been previously known as Bally- 
garney, was his principal country residence, but he had also a 
small house on the lands of Kishoge, which he owned as well as 
other lands in Esker parish. At the time of the rebellion in 1641 
Kennedy's agricultural operations at Ballygarney were on an exten- 
sive scale and much in advance of the time ; but his lands in Esker 
parish do not appear to have been in his own hands, and in 1650 
we find Kishoge occupied by Gerrard Archbold and some eighty 
other inhabitants. At the latter time Finnstown was occupied by 
a brother of Sir Robert Kennedy's, Alderman Walter Kennedy, 
whose relations with his brother, possibly owing to their being of 
different religions, do not seem to have been always of a friendly 
character. On the remaining lands in the parish there was no 
resident of importance; at Rowlagh the chief inhabitant was a 
weaver and at Esker a basket-maker (2) . 

After the Restoration the lands of Ballyowen, which during the 
Commonwealth had been leased by the State to Captain Francis 



(1) Exchequer Fine Rolls, and Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Car. I., No. 9; Arch- 
bishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 153 ; Will of Lamerick Nottingham ; Survey of 
Newcastle and Uppercross ; " History of 8t. Audoen's Parish," in The Irish 
BuUder for 1887, p. 29. 

(2) Journal of the Cork Archcedogical and Historical Society, ser. ii., vol. viii., 
p. 179; Depositions of 1641; AVill of x\lderman Walter Kennedy; The Irish 
Builder for 1889, p. 128 ; Survey of Newcastle and Uppercross. 



ESKER, WITH HERMITAGE, AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 79 



Peasley, appear in possession of their former owners, the Notting- 
hams ; and the castle, which contained five hearths, was occupied by 
Peter Nottingham, a younger son of Lamerick Nottingham. Bally- 
dowd was likewise in possession of its former owners, the Forsters, 
and the castle, which contained like Bally owen five hearths, was 
occupied by John Forster, the eldest son of its previous inhabitant. 
At Finnstown there was a house, with seven hearths, occupied by 
Mrs. Drape, and subsequently by the Countess of Fingal, and at 
Kishoge two houses, with four hearths each, occupied respectively by 
a Mr. Burton and a Mr. Harborne. The Kennedys still retained 
a connection with Esker as owners of a considerable portion of 
the lands in the parish. Sir Robert Kennedy, who died in 1668, 
was succeeded by his eldest surviving son. Sir Richard Kennedy, 
who, after a successful career at the Irish Bar, had been appointed 
second baron of the Irish Exchequer, and Alderman Walter 
Kennedy, who died in 1672, was succeeded by his eldest son, 
Christopher Kennedy. Sir Richard Kennedy, whose male line 
became extinct in 1710 on the death of his grandson, appears to 
have had a residence in Esker parish, as he mentions in his will, 
which was made in 1680, goods and chattels at Ballydowd; but 
Newtownmount Kennedy was his constant country residence, and 
Esker saw probably little if anything of him (i). 

The Nottinghams forfeited their property after the Revolution, 
and Bally owen passed into the possession of Colonel Thomas Bellew, 
who was member of Parliament for Mullingar in the reign of 
George I. Colonel Bellew seems to have made much use of Bally- 
owen as a residence, and in his will, which was executed in 1733, 
describes his possessions there, including the contents of a certain 
yellow room, in great detail. He left two daughters, one married 
to William Sheppard and the other to Henry White, through the 
latter of whom he became an ancestor of the Earls of Westmeath. 
In case of any dispute about his property, he referred the settle- 
ment to his brother-in-law, Boleyn Whitney, a leading barrister of 
that time, and to Prime Serjeant Singleton, whom he thoughtfully 
prepared for possible developments by leaving him his sword and 
best case of pistols. Subsequently Bally owen passed into the 
possession of a family called Rochfort (2). 



(1) Crown Rental ; Census of 1659 ; Subsidy Rolls ; Hearth Money Roll ; Book 
of Survey and Distribution ; Chichester House Claims ; Will of Sir Richard Ken- 
nedy. 

(') Book of Postings and Sales ; Return of Members of Parliament ; Lodge's 
Peerage, vol. i., p. 249, vol. vii., p. 202 ; Will of Thomas Bellew. 



80 



PARISH OF ESKER. 



Hermitage had been built before that time, and was then the 
residence of Major-General Robert Naper, one of the parliamen- 
tary representatives of the borough of Athboy. He was a younger 
son of Colonel James Naper of Loughcrew, who married a sister of 




The Wooden Bridgre near Hermitage. 

From a drauing by Jonathan Fisher. 

Sit William Petty, and was brother-in-law of Lieutenant- General 
Richard Ingoldsby, sometime a Lord Justice of Ireland, and the 
Right Hon. Thomas Bligh, an ancestor of the Earls of Darnley (i). 
After his death in 1739 Hermitage passed into the possession of 
the Hon. Robert Butler, who was a brother of the first Earl 
of Lanesborough, and of the Hon. John Butler, mentioned in con- 
nection with Dundrum. At an early age Robert Butler had been 
appointed captain of the Battle-Axe Guards, and subsequently 
was elected member of parliament for Belturbet. While he was 
living at Hermitage in 1758 the smallpox broke out in the house, 
and the wife of his nephew, Oliver Coghill Cramer, fell a victim 
there to that disease three months after her marriage. Through 
his wife, who was a daughter of the Right Rev. Robert Howard, 
Bishop of Elphin, an ancestor of the Earls of Wicklow, and widow 
of John Stoyte of Rosanna, Robert Butler became connected with 



(i) Dvhlin Evening Post, July 14-17, 1733; Lodge's Peerage, vol. ii., p. 209; 
Burke's " Landed Gentry," under Naper of Loughcrew ; Will of Robert Naper. 



ESKER, WITH HERMITAGE, AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 81 



the County Wicklow, and desired if he died in that county to be 
buried in Delgany Church. His death took place in 1763 (i). 
Later on in that century we find Hermitage occupied by the Right 
Hon. Sir Lucius Henry O'Brien, Bart., a prominent politician 
of his day, whose title is now merged in the Inchiquin peerage (2), 
and subsequently by the Right Hon. James FitzGerald, the silver- 
tongued Prime Serjeant, who has been already mentioned under 
Booterstown, where his death took place (3). 

Near Hermitage a spring of tepid water, as well as springs with 
a petrifying tendency, was discovered about the middle of the 
eighteenth century by Dr. Rutty (*), and a very picturesque bridge 
made of rustic timber was at a later period thrown across the 
Liffey at that point by Lord Carhampton in order to connect 
Luttrellstown with the southern side of the river. Ballydowd 
Castle, the home of the Forster family, lay on the northern side 
of the Dublin road like Hermitage, to the west of which it stood, 
and in the middle of the eighteenth century it appears to have 
been occupied by the then Ulster King of Arms, John Hawkins.' 
In the later part of that century Woodville was erected on its site, 
and became the residence of the Right Hon. Henry Theophilus 
Clements, brother of the first Earl of Leitrim. A contemporary 
writer, who describes the seat as *' deserving the attention of the 
curious," says that the house was a superb structure, and that 
the grounds, in which there was a cottage decorated with stained 
glass close to the river side, were spacious and well laid out. 
Clements, who had served in the army and had attained to the 
rank of a Lieutenant-Colonel, succeeded his father, the well-known 
Nathaniel Clements, as Deputy Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and in 
that capacity we find him in 1783 entertaining the Lord Lieutenant 
at Woodville. 



(1) Exahaw'a Magazine for 1758, p. 536 ; Lodge's Peerage, vol. ii.. p. 399, 400; 
WiU of Hon. Robert Butler. 

(«) Taylor and Skinner's "Map of Ireland," pp. 61. 93 ; G. E. C.'s "Com- 
plete Baronetage," vol. iv., p. 226 ; Falkland's " Review of the Irish House of 
Commons," p. 28. 

(8) Hibernian Magazine for 1797, pt. ii., p. 94. 

(4) Rutty's " Mineral Waters of Ireland," pp. 301, 349, and" Natural History 
cf County Dublin," vol. ii., p. 146 ; Jonathan Fisher's " Scenery of Ireland " ; 
Rocque's Map of County Dublin ; Angel's " History of Ireland," vol. i., p. 261 ; 
Lodge's Peerage, vol. vii., p. 220 ; Dublin jQumal^ June 21-24, 1783. 



82 



PARISH OF ESKER. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.. 

Of the church of Esker, which lies about a mile to the south-east 
of Lucan, only some fragments remain, but there are sufficient to 
indicate that it was, like the neighbouring one of Newcastle, a large 
building dating from mediaval times. The most striking features 
of the ruins, as shown in the picture, are the belfry gable and a 
window in the north wall (i). The church, as appears from an 





1 




^^^^H^di''' vPQBI 


P 


^Kfl 




m 


ifliii^MiB^H 



Esker Church. 

From a photogi*aph hy Mr. Thomas Mason. 

entry in the Guild Book of the Carpenters, Masons, and Heliers of 
Dublin (2), underwent extensive repair, if not rebuilding, in the 
early part of the sixteenth century, and it is interesting to find 
that the church was roofed with wood. The method of roofing 
churches in Ireland in mediaeval times has been a subject of doubt, 
but this record determines the question so far as Esker church is 
concerned. It states that in 1537 discord arose between two 



(1) ** Antiquarian Rambles in the County Dublin," by John S. Sloane, in The 
Irish Literary Gazette, vol. ii., p. 17. 

(?) See Paper by the Assistant Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland, 
Henry F. Berry, in Journal R.S.AJ., vol. xxv., p. 328. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 83 

carpenters, Patrick Boshell and William Trasse, as to making the 
roof of Esker church. The work had been executed by the latter, 
and the discord arose from the fact that Boshell had been promised 
the contract, and that Trasse had obtained it by some unfair 
practice, for which he had to pay a fine both to the Guild and to his 
adversary. 

The church of Esker, which was dedicated like Newcastle to St. 
Finian, was given by King John to the Church of St. Patrick, 
and on the establishment of the latter as a cathedral was assigned 
to the Dean as part of his corps. The church was served by a 
curate, who in the sixteenth century received the altarages, then 
valued at five pounds, as his stipend, and was probably allowed the 
use of a house belonging to the Dean, to which a park and a 
garden, as well as agricultural land, were attached. In the latter 
part of that century the church appears to have been served by 
the curate of Lucan, and was probably allowed to fall into dis- 
repair. In the early part of the seventeenth century it was 
returned as unroofed and altogether ruinous. The parish was at 
that time joined to Kilmactalway and subsequently to Clondalkin, 
but in the eighteenth century it was united to Leixlip and Lucan, 
and the vicars of the Union resided in a house which had been 
erected on the glebe lands of Esker (i). 



(1) Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 27 (note g), 29 ; " Crede 
Mihi " edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 137 ; Fiant Elizabeth, No. 3379 ;' Regal 
Visitation of 1615 ; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 153 ; Visitation Books ; 
also see, for copies of the inscriptions on tombstones in Esker Churchyard, Journal 
of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, vol. iii., p. 437. 



g2 



84 PARISH OF PALMERSTON. 



Parish of Palmerston. 



This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the Townlands 
of Irishtown and Palmerston. 

It now contains the Townlands of Brooklawn, Fonthill, Irishtown, Johnstown, 
Palmerston Lower and Upper, Quarryvale, Redcowfarm, Saintlaurence, 
Woodfarm, and Yellow Walls. 

The objects of antiquarian interest are the ruined church of Palmerston and 
the castle of Irishtown. 



PALMERSTON. 

The great mansion called Palmerston House, which now forms 
part of the Stewart Institution for Imbecile Children, has for 
many generations overshadowed the village and parish of Palmers- 
ton, which lie on the Lucan road to the east of the parish of 
Esker. But the erection of this mansion is a comparatively recent 
event in the history of Palmerston, and several houses of no 
less importance in their day had previously stood upon the lands, 
although all trace of these dwellings, with the exception of the 
remains of the Castle of Irishtown (i), has now disappeared. 

The name Palmerston, which occurs more than once in the 
local nomenclature of the County Dublin, and also in that of the 
County Kildare, has its origin in the occupation of the lands to 
which the name has been given by the members of a religious 
house founded in connection with the Crusades of the middle ages. 
This house, which stood outside the western wall of the ancient 
City of Dublin in what is now known as Thomas Street, was 
modelled on a hospital established in Jerusalem about the middle 
of the twelfth century under the invocation of St. John the Baptist, 
and was founded by a palmer or pilgrin; to the Holy Land, callsd 
Ailred, who is said to have been a Dane, and who appears first in 
1174 as a witness to a grant made by Strongbow. In its early 



(i) See "The Lesser Castles of the County PubUn" by E. R. M'C. Dix, in 
The Irish Builder for 1898, p. 122. 



PALMERSTON. 85 



days the house was called the Palmers' Hospital, but before long 
it was recognised under the same dedicatory name as its proto- 
type, and was styled the Hospital of St. John the Baptist without 
the New Gate of Dublin. The active duty of the members of its 
community, who became ultimately merged in the Augustinian 
Order as crouched friars, and who were presided over by a prior, 
was the care of the sick, and in this work women as well as men 
were engaged. When the hospital became possessed of the lands 
now under review does not appear, but they were probably given 
to it in the twelfth century by the Crown, under which it held 
them at a yearly rent of half a mark (i) . 

The Hospital of St. John the Baptist was not, however, the only 
establishment of the kind owning lands within the limits of the 
present parish of Palmerston. The townland of Saintlaurence, 
which lies between the village of Palmerston and that of Chapel- 
izod, was then the site of a House for Lepers, which was dedicated 
to St. Laurence, and there the members of another community 
devoted themselves to the care of those outcasts. In connection 
with the history of the lands of Leopardstown, the existence in 
mediaeval times of the Leper Hospital of St. Stephen near the 
ancient City of Dublin has been mentioned, and it is somewhat 
surprising to find that the prevalence of leprosy in the neighbour- 
hood of the Metropolis was then so great as to require two estab- 
lishments, by no means ill-endowed, for the relief of those suffering 
from that dreadful disease. It was no doubt brought from the 
Holy Land by crusaders, and its prevalence in Dublin indicates that 
many crusaders settled there. The Leper House of St. Laurence 
had a chapel attached to it, and the head of the community was 
styled prior, as appears from the proceedings taken in 1300 by 
the then head, Brother Richard, for the recovery of a rent charge 
on the lands of Terenure. Early in the fifteenth century this 
religious establishment was dissolved, and its possessions became 
vested in the Crown. By the latter the lands, together with the 
ruined chapel, were subsequently leased to various persons, and 
proved a valuable property owing to the profits of a fair held 



(i) " History of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist," by ]Edward Evans, in 
The Irish Builder for 1896, pp. 167, 192, 204 ; " The Works of Sir James Ware," 
edited by Walter Harris, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 272 ; " Register of the Abbey of St. 
Thomas, Dublin," edited by Sir John Gilbert, pp. 112, 166, 285, 292, in Rolls 
Series ; Christ Church Deeds, Nos. 1, 601 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 1262--1307, 
passim. 



86 PAKISH OF PALMBRSTON. 



Upon them on St. Laurence's Day — a fair which appears to have 
been only second in importance to that of Donnybrook Q). 

The grange of Palmerston was one of the most highly valued 
possessions of the Dublin monasteries in the metropolitan county, 
and when the dissolution of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, 
in common with the other religious houses, took place in 1539, 
there were doubtless very substantial buildings upon the lands. 
Later on in that century we read of '* the capital house," which 
stood near the church, of the arched gateway through which it 
was approached, of the great bawn which had been built for the 
protection of the cattle, and of the mill and kiln in which the corn 
was ground and dried. In addition to their material value for 
agricultural purposes, the lands, owing to their proximity to the 
Liffey, provided then, as they do now, an attractive site for a 
residence, and in dry legal documents we catch a glimpse of the 
slade and river bank which were then covered with furze and 
abounded in coneys, and of the hedgerows and woods in which the 
pigeons, then so carefully housed, found enjoyment. The lands 
were not long left on the hands of the Crown without a tenant, 
and were finally granted to Sir John Allen, the Irish Chancellor 
of that day, who has been already mentioned as succeeding to 
lands in this district, as well as to St. Wolstan's in the County 
Kildare, which became his residence. 

By Sir John Allen the lands of Palmerston were settled on his 
wife for life, with remainder to the sons of his brother, William 
Allen, and subsequently we find the descendants of his brother 
seated upon them, sending archers to the hostings, and recognised 
amongst the men of position in the county. Besides other children, 
including Katherine, who married William Locke, and whose name 
is inscribed on Athgoe Castle, William Allen had two sons, John 
and Matthew, who successively occupied Palmerston. John 
Allen died in 1587, and Matthew Allen died in 1589. The former 
married Mary Carnes, who survived him, and took as her second 
husband Alderman James Jans, and the latter married Annabella 
Martin, who also survived her first husband, and took as her 
second Alderman Patrick Browne, already mentioned as a resi- 
dent in Esker parish. These ladies held as their dower portion 



{^) Archdall's " Monasticon Hibemicum," p. 253 ; Memoranda Roll, 7 to 9, 
Edw. IV., m. 1 ; Plea Roll. 28 Edw. I., m. 33 ; Christ Church Deed, No. 421 ; 
Fiants Eliz., Nos. 316, 2426, 4409. 



PALMfiRSTOU. 67 



of the Palmerston lands, and under an arrangement made in 
1601 it was agreed that Alderman Patrick Browne and his wife 
should build on the lands of Irishtown the castle of which remains 
are still to be seen Q). 

It was thought necessary even at that period that a house in 
such a situation should be capable of defence, and after the Re- 
bellion * * the stone house " at Irishtown was actually put to the 
test. Before October 1642, a garrison of ten men under the 
command of a sergeant had been placed in it, and in that month 
the sergeant and half the men were induced to join the Confederate 
army. The lands of Irishtown were then being farmed by a 
member of the Ussher family, and Mr. Ussher's representative, a 
yeoman called John Lawless, relates that on the night on which 
the sergeant left an attack was made on the castle, and that the 
members of the depleted garrison were able to hold it, although 
his master's corn in the haggard to the value of £400 and a great 
stable were burned (2). Matthew Allen, who died in 1589, was 
succeeded by his son, John Allen. The latter married a grand- 
daughter of Chief Justice Luttrell, a daughter of John Luttrell 
of Killeigh, and died in 1604. He was succeeded in his turn 
by his son, Matthew Allen, who died in 1645 and was buried in 
Palmerston Churchyard, where there is a tombstone to his 
memory (3). The latter compromised himself in the Rebellion, and 
the lands of Palmerston, which in November, 1646, were selected 
as the place for the proposed meeting between Ormonde and 
Preston, then encamped at Lucan with the Confederate forces, 
were seized by the Crown, and passed out of the possession of the 
Allen family (4). 

The next person mentioned in connection with the lands of 
Palmerston is Sir Maurice Eustace, then Prime Serjeant at Law 



(i) Exchequer Inquisitions, Co. Dublin, Eliz., Nos. 23, 130, 176, 202 ; " An 
Account of the Family of Alen of St. Wolstan*8," by the Rev. H. L. Lyster Denny, 
in the Journal of the Archaeological Society of the County KUdare, vol. iv., pp. 95- 
110, 164; Haliday Manuscripts, p. 162. publisfied by Historical Manuscripts 
Commission ; " Description of Ireland in 1698," edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, 
p. 37 ; Manuscript in Trinity College Library, F. 1, 18. p. 177 ; Chancery In- 
quisition, Co. Dublin, Jac. I., No. il. 

(*) Deposition of 1641, John Lalis of Irishtown. 

(*) It bears the following inscription : — " Here lyeth the body of Mathew 
Alen of Palmerston who departed this life July ye 14th 1645. This stone was 
laid here by his daughter Madam Alice Alen." 

(4) Carte Papers, vol. xix., f. 572, vol. Ixiii., f. 501. 



8S PARISH OF PALMERSTON. 

and Speaker of the House of Commons in this country, and after 
the Restoration Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Eustace belonged to 
a family whose arrival in Ireland had been contemporaneous with 
the Anglo-Norman invasion, and whose more prominent members 
in past generations had been ennobled under the titles of Portlester 
and Baltinglas. Although, as has been mentioned in connection 
with the history of Monkstown, the family had been distinguished 
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth for its adherence to the Roman 
Catholic religion, Eustace's father, who was '* Constable of the 
Naas," had embraced the Reformed faith, and had sent his son 
to be educated in the College of the Holy Trinity near Dublin, 
then established less than twenty years. There Eustace greatly 
distinguished himself, and was finally elected a fellow and ap- 
pointed lecturer in Hebrew, a language which he had made his 
special study, and of which he proved himself during his occupancy 
of that chair a master. It had been his intention to take holy 
orders, but ultimately he decided upon entering the legal pro- 
fession, and gained admission to Lincoln's Inn in London. 

On completion of the necessary course, during which he gained 
a high reputation for proficiency in legal knowledge, Eustace re- 
turned to his native country, and began to practise at the Irish 
Bar. Before long his ability and great industry attracted the 
notice of the Lord Chancellor of that day, Adam Viscount Loftus 
of Ely, who attached Eustace to his person in a confidential posi- 
tion, and finally recommended him to Strafford for the office of 
Prime Serjeant. Subsequently a coolness arose between them, but 
meantime Eustace had secured a new patron in Strafford, who 
had formed an equally high opinion of Eustace's professional 
attainments. Strafford had doubtless found him a useful instru- 
ment in his first Parliament, to which Eustace had been returned 
as member for Athy, and it was with his full approval that on the 
assembling of his second Parliament Eustace, who then represented 
the County Kildare, was called to the Speaker's Chair. On that 
occasion Eustace delivered a speech, which was thought at the 
time to be incomparable for eloquence and erudition, and received 
from Strafford the honour of knighthood (i) . 



{^) " Some Notes on the Irish Judiciary in the reign of Charles 11. ," in Journal 
of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society, ser. ii., vol. vii., p. 31. 



PALMEHSTON. 89 



Eustace, who kept himself clear from the events attending Straf- 
ford's downfall, and who in the troubled times that followed was 
ever at the right hand of that faithful servant of the Stuarts, 
James, first Duke of Ormonde, appears first as connected with the 
Palmerston lands in 1647, when woods, which then stood upon 
the townland of Irishtown, are described as his property. The 
reference to the woods is in an order for their protection issued 
by Ormonde in March of that year, when Dublin was in daily 
apprehension of being besieged by the Confederate forces, and 
indicates that the woods were then being pillaged by the citizens 
for firing, as the guards at St. James' Gate are enjoined in the 
order to stop any person returning to the city with wood in their 
possession. About that time Eustace thought fit, possibly with 
a view to its greater safety in those uncertain days, to transfer his 
property at Palmerston to the husband of one of his sisters, and 
two months later a royal grant was made to his brother-in-law, 
Henry Warren, second remembrancer of the Exchequer, of the 
lands of Palmerston, Saintlaurence, and Irishtown, lately belong- 
ing to Matthew Allen, who had been indicted for treason, together 
with all the interest therein of one James Allen, who had been 
declared an outlaw (i) . 

The event, which Eustace then possibly foresaw, the surrender 
of Dublin to the Parliament, came in July, and Ormonde, having 
handed over the city to its new rulers, took his departure for a 
time from Ireland. He left behind him in Dublin many royalists, 
Eustace being amongst the number. The city was not so secure 
from attack by the Confederate forces, or so well defended by the 
garrison as to enable Colonel Michael Jones, who had been 
appointed Governor by the Parliament, to despise the services of 
any residents who chose to offer them in its defence, but although 
from expediency many royalists did so, Eustace and some others 
were too faithful in their allegiance to their Sovereign to recognise 
in any way the usurped authority. At first he and his companions 
were not disturbed, and during the autumn we find the cavaliers 
amongst them passing their time in hawking, a sport in which 
Eustace was only prevented joining them one day owing to a friend 
having taken his horse (2) . But in the following year they were 
placed under arrest, and Eustace was sent off to Chester, and was 
detained in England for seven years. 

(A) Carte Papers, vol clxiv., f. 392, 508. 
(*) Carte Papers, vol. xxi., f. 463. 



90 PARISH Ot PALMteRSTOK. 



When the Commonwealth period opened^ the principal persons 
returned as residents at Palmerston were William Smith, who 
was possibly the citizen of Dublin of that name who filled the 
mayoral chair no less than seven times, and Walter Archbold, 
an old gentleman of eighty years of age; while Irishtown castle 
was stated to be occupied by Edward Archbold, his wife, and a 
large family of stepchildren called Byrne. In addition to these. 
Alderman Daniel Hutchinson, one of the mayors of Dublin during 
the Commonwealth, had an interest in the Palmerston lands, and 
was represented on them by a bailiff and many farm servants (i). 
But later on a much more important person came to the parish, 
a wealthy Englishman called Thomas Vincent, who took up his 
abode in Irishtown castle, which in his time was returned as '' a 
habitable house," and was rated as containing eleven chimneys. 
During the troubled times Vincent had become connected with 
Ireland as mortgagee of the estate of Edward, third Lord Blayney, 
whose father had died fighting against Owen O'Neill, and who 
with the other members of his family had been reduced to a state 
of destitution as a result of the rebellion. Ultimately, through 
the advances which he made, Vincent became owner of the estate; 
but Lord Blayney 's brother Richard, who succeeded him as fourth 
Lord Blayney, by * * a prudent marriage " with Vincent's eldest 
daughter, recovered it as his marriage portion. He secured also 
by special provision in his marriage settlement a home for himself 
and his wife, with four servants and two horses, in his father-in- 
law's house, and doubtless induced the latter to come to Ireland 
under the protection of the Cromwells, in whose favour he stood 
high. Vincent, who became an alderman of Dublin, and repre- 
sented the Borough of Monaghan in the Restoration Parliament, 
enjoyed the friendship of many of his neighbours at Irishtown, 
including Sir John Cole of Newlands and Sir Theophilus Jones of 
Lucan, and resided there until his death in 1666 (2). 

In his will Vincent mentions that he held Irishtown under a 
lease from Sir Maurice Eustace, but when this lease was made 
does not appear, and it was possibly not executed until after the 
Restoration. Eustace had, however, been permitted to return to 
Ireland on Henry Cromwell's appointment in 1655 as Lord Deputy. 



(^) Survey of Upper Cross and Newcastle. 

(*) Census of 1659 ; Hearth Money Roll ; Lodge's Peerage, vol. vi., p. 313 ; 
Will of Thomas Vincent. 



PALMBRSTOK. 



91 



This privilege had been granted to him on the solicitation of Sir 
Arthur Annesley, afterwards second Viscount Valentia and first 
Earl of Anglesey, whose brother had married one of Eustace's 
nieces. Although best known as a prominent advocate of the 
Restoration and as a statesman in the reign of Charles II., 
Annesley was then a trusted servant of the Commonwealth, and 
through him Eustace became known to Henry Cromwell, who four 
years later speaks of him as an eminent lawyer, to whom ' ' he was 
beholden and owed a kindness " (i) . That Henry Cromwell's 
goodwill went so far as to allow Eustace to derive any benefit from 
the Palmerston property, which was returned in the Common- 
wealth surveys as forfeited, seems improbable; but at the same 
time no one else is mentioned as resident in the chief house, and 
Eustace seems to have maintained a connection with the place 
during the Commonwealth period, as we find that his sister Elinor 
and her husband, Edmund Keatinge, the parents of the well- 
known Chief Justice Keatinge, were buried in Palmerston 
churchyard (2). 

After the Restoration a Sir Maurice Eustace is returned as 
occupant of the chief house, then rated as containing nine hearths, 
but this may have been a nephew of the great lawyer, who bore 
the same name and was also knighted. His uncle, who had been 
arrested a second time not long before the Restoration, and who 
appears to have been in London when that event took place, was 
nominated soon after the return of Charles II. as Lord Chancellor 
of Ireland. That office was then one of more than ordinary im- 
portance owing to the great questions to be decided in connection 
with the settlement, and for the first two years until the arrival in 



(i) Lansdowne Manuscripts in British Museum, 881, f. 3, and " Thurloe 
State Papers," vol. vii., p. 635. 

(*) A monument in the ruined church bears the following inscription: — 
" This monument is erected by John Keating, Esq. Chief Justice of the Court of 
Common Pleas, second son of Edward Keating of Narraghmore in the County of 
Kildare by Eleanor Eustace his wife, daughter of John Eustace in the County 
aforesaid, Esq. in memory of the Lady Grace Shruckburgh the relict of the said 
Richard Shruckburgh of Shruckburgh in the County of Warwick, Knight ; she 
was one of the daughters of Sir Thomas Holt of Aston juxta Birmingham in said 
County, Bart. ; after some years viduity on the 27 October 1659 she intermarried 
with the said John, then a student at Lincoln's Inn, with whom having lived 
with mutual comfort and satisfaction she departed this life the 12 AprU 1677* 
and is here interred in a vault wherein are likewise deposited the ashes of the said 
Edward and Eleanor who had both been formerly buried in this ground and when 
it shall please the Almighty to put an end to his the said John's pilgrimage his 
desires now are that his bones may be laid by theirs if conveniently it may be." 
See also Will of Edmund Keating. 



92 



PARISH OF PALMERSTON. 




PALMER STON. 93 



1662 of the Duke of Ormonde as Lord Lieutenant Eustace 
acted also as the principal Lord Justice. Such property as he 
possessed before the usurpation was quickly restored to him, and 
in addition he acquired by purchase or royal grant fresh posses- 
sions. Amongst the former was Harristown, in the County Kil- 
dare, which had been his father's residence, and amongst the latter 
Chapelizod, where there was then a house far superior to the one 
at Palmerston. These with his town house in Dame Street, now 
commemorated in the modern Eustace Street, are the only houses 
which Eustace is known to have occupied during the brief period 
of life that remained to him after his appointment as Chancellor. 
He had accepted that office with reluctance, as he felt himself 
unequal to the great task that then lay before its holder, and had 
urged pathetically as arguments against his appointment advanced 
age and infirmities which had been aggravated by his restraint 
during the Commonwealth. The result proved that his judgment of 
his own powers was a sound one. As Chancellor he failed completely 
to maintain the high reputation which he had gained in earlier life, 
and three years after his appointment broke down under the 
responsibilities of his great office. After a time some measure of 
strength was restored to him, and Eustace was able to resume the 
discharge of his duties. The improvement in his health was only 
as the flickering of a candle before it is burned out, and after a 
pitiful struggle with increasing weakness, Eustace succumbed 
in 1665 to an attack of palsy. Eustace had married in 1633 a 
daughter of Sir Robert Dixon, an ancestor of Sir Kildare Dixon 
Borrowes, Bart., but left no legitimate children. He appears to 
have been succeeded at Palmerston by his nephew and namesake, 
Sir Maurice Eustace, already mentioned as a possible resident in 
the chief house (i). 

But the year after Eustace's death a new owner appears at 
Palmerston in the person of Sir John Temple, who filled the 
office of Solicitor-General for Ireland during the reign of Charles 
II. His possession of the Palmerston lands was due to mort- 
gages which had been placed upon them before the rebellion by 
Matthew Allen in favour of Arthur White, a younger son of Sir 
Nicholas White the second of Leixlip. Arthur White had died 
in 1648 at Beaumaris, and had bequeathed the mortgages to his 



(1) Hearth Money Roll, and paper on Irish Judiciary of Charles II., already 
quoted. 



94 PARISH OF PALMERSTON. 



elder brother, another Nicholas White, who after the Restoration 
had established his right to them before the Court of Claims, and 
had sold them to Sir John Temple. The value of the lands over 
the mortgages had been assigned towards the payment of the 
arrears due to the oflScers who had served in Ireland under Charles 
I., and Sir John Temple, who as mortgagee had prior right of 
redemption on paying that sum, a comparatively small one, be- 
came absolute owner of Palmerston (i). 

Sir John Temple was a distinguished member of a most dis- 
tinguished family. Sir William Temple, the favourite secretary 
of the accomplished and gallant Sir Philip Sidney, who became 
Provost of Trinity College, was his grandfather. Sir John Temple, 
the historian of the Irish Rebellion, who for nearly forty years, 
undisturbed by King or Parliament, served the State in this 
country as Master of the Rolls, was his father, and that statesman 
of incomparable reputation in his day. Sir William Temple, the 
patron of Swift, was his elder brother. From him descended a 
Prime Minister of Great Britain whose memory is still fresh, Henry 
Temple, third and last Viscount Palmerston — a title which was 
conferred on Sir John Temple's son, and which is remarkable for 
a duration of nearly a century and a half, although only held by 
three persons. In writing of the branch of the Temple family to 
which the Prime Minister belonged, it has been remarked that it 
was little allied with the higher nobility, but frequently with 
the leading families of the commercial class, and that its members, 
who remained thoroughly English in spite of their connection with 
Ireland, enjoyed nearly uninterrupted intellectual distinction for 
three centuries with a pervading likeness of character in their 
practicability as statesmen or lawyers, in their fondness for litera- 
ture, in which they were sometimes famous, and their success as 
men of the world without loss of higher attributes (2). 

Sir John Temple the younger was born in 1632. His father 
was then resident in England, where he held some position in 
the Court of Charles I., which the friendship of Sir Philip Sidney's 
family had doubtless obtained for him, and it was not until 
nine years later, on his appointment as Master of the Rolls, that 



(1) Certificates of Adventurers, &c., Roll viii., m. 3 ; Will of Arthur White. 

(*) "The Family of Temple " in The Herald and Genealogist, edited by J. Gough 
Nichols, vol. iii.. pp. 385-410. 



PALMERSTON. 95 



his father came to Ireland. Of Temple's early education 
nothing is known. It is possible that it may have been partly 
conducted like that of his illustrious brother by his maternal 
uncle, Dr. Henry Hammond, a divine no less remarkable for his 
devotion to the royal cause than for his learning, and certainly 
Temple appears to have been more imbued with the opinions of 
his uncle than with those of his father. At the early age of 
eighteen Temple entered Lincoln's Inn as a law student, and for- 
tunately for himself had been called to the Bar a few years before 
the Restoration. He was thus eligible to fill the office of Solicitor- 
General for Ireland, to which he was at once appointed by Charles 
II. His selection for that office was in a great measure the result 
of the assistance which his father had given towards the return 
of the King, but Temple soon proved his fitness for the post. In 
the Irish Parliament, to which he had been returned as member 
for the Borough of Carlo w, near which his father had his country 
seat, his talents were specially conspicuous, and during the absence 
of the Speaker, Sir Audley Mervyn, in England, Temple, although 
then not thirty years of age, was called to take his place in the 
Speaker's Chair, a position for which he was again designated in 
1678, when the Duke of Ormonde contemplated summoning a 
parliament in Dublin. As an adviser of the Crown he gave the 
utmost satisfaction, and the Duke of Ormonde, who conferred on 
him in 1663 the honour of knighthood, speaks of him then as a 
man of extraordinary parts and of signal affection for the King's 
service. 

Palmerston became Temple's country residence, and from 
thence many of his letters to the Duke of Ormonde are dated. He 
was much consulted by the latter about his private as well as public 
affairs, and as years went on the Duke relied more and more on 
his advice. In England, which he visited from time to time. 
Temple became well known. It is said that Dr. Sheldon, when 
Archbishop of Canterbury, paid him the compliment, a singular 
one as it has been remarked for an ecclesiastic to make, ** that he 
had the curse of the Gospel because all men spoke well of him," 
and so great did his legal reputation become that his appointment 
to the English Attorney- Generalship was actually contemplated. 
He could more than once have obtained high judicial place in this 
country, but the law officerships were then far more lucrative than 
the chief justiceships, and, following the example of the Attorney- 
General, Sir William Domvile, as mentioned in connection with the 



96 PARISH OF PALMERSTON. 

latter's residence at Loughlinstown, it was not until two years after 
the accession of James II. that Temple closed what is a still 
unparalleled term of office as Solicitor- General. On the arrival of 
William III., Temple became his chief adviser with regard to 
Irish affairs, and after the Battle of the Boyne was appointed 
Attorney- General for Ireland. It was, however, then evidently 
his desire to reside in England, probably in order to gain for his 
family the advantage of being more immediately under the segis of 
his mighty brother's name. He avoided being elected Speaker of 
the Irish House of Commons, a position which it was wished 
he should accept, by going to England and not seeking a 
seat in the Irish Parliament, and about the same time he sold a 
grant of the reversion of the Mastership of the Rolls which had 
been given to him. Finally, five years later, he resigned his 
office and permanently took up his residence near London, at 
East Sheen, where in 1705 he died (i). 

Palmerston saw the Temples no more. From that time Sir 
John Temple's family became completely identified with England, 
where his youngest daughters made great matches, one of them, 
the Countess of Portland, attaining celebrity as governess of the 
daughters of George II. At the time of Sir John Temple's death 
his house at Palmerston was temporarily occupied by Sir Richard 
Cox, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who followed during an 
eventful life the varied paths of a lawyer, soldier, statesman, and 
author with equal success, and was unquestionably one of the 
ablest Irishmen of his day (2). But not long after Sir John 
Temple's death, his son, although he subsequently took his title 
from the place, disposed of his principal interest in Palmerston 
to Robert Wilcocks, a gentleman of large fortune, who was con- 
nected with Mountmellick, where he directed his body should be 
interred with all possible funeral pomp. Wilcocks died while 
living at Palmerston in 1711, and as he left no issue, bequeathed 
his property there to a nephew and namesake, whom he desired 
should be educated in Trinity College, Dublin, and should adopt 
the legal profession (3). 



(1) " Some Notes on the Irish Judiciary in the reign of Charles II.'* in Journal 
of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society, ser. ii., vol. ix., p. 91 ; Letters 
in possession of the Marquis of Ormonde. 

(*) Will of Sir John Temple. 

(1) Will of Robert Wilcocks. 



PALMERSTON. 97 



The fair on St. Laurence's day still survived in the eighteenth 
century as a relic of the Leper House. It had become known as 
Palmerston Fair, and was a place of great resort for Dublin 
citizens. Like Donny brook Fair, it was often the scene of disgrace- 
ful occurrences. There in the year 1737 the Ormond and Liberty 
boys, two noted factions at the time, met and engaged, as we are 
told, with the result that several of them were wounded, and one 
man, whose legs had to be amputated, died next day (i). Houses 
of entertainment, needless to say, then flourished in the village, 
and amongst the names given to them we find the sign of the 
Swan, the Red Lion, the Black Bull, and the White Swan. There 
were also various industrial undertakings at Palmerston, as in- 
dicated in the existence of the French Mill and Linen Mill, the 
Plating Mill, the Brickfields, the Logwood Mill, and the Big Skin 
Mill (2). 

The most important event in the eighteenth century history of 
Palmerston was the arrival of the Right Hon. John Hely Hut- 
chinson, then Prime Serjeant at Law in Ireland and subsequently 
Provost of Trinity College and Secretary of State in this country, 
as occupant of Palmerston House. This occurred about the year 
1763, when Hutchinson purchased from Robert Wilcocks and his 
son, who bore the same name, their fee simple interest in the 
Palmerston lands, together with all buildings and improvements 
thereon. It is curious to notice in the long list of offices then 
thought necessary adjuncts of a country residence the existence of 
a pigeon house, a cider house, and a granary, and to find the 
ownership of pews in Chapelizod Church considered worthy of 
transfer by a formal deed (3). Hutchinson was then at a height 
of fame which it is now difficult to understand. The satires upon 
him have survived, the calm judgment of disinterested spectators 
has been forgotten. No member was ever more extolled and 
more in fashion, says Francis Hardy, who had no inclination to 
be a friendly critic, than Hutchinson on his first appearance in 
the House of Commons as member for the City of Cork. His im- 
pressive and graceful oratory, which owed much to the teaching 
of that master of elocution, James Quin the actor, captivated 



(1) Dvhlin Intelligence, August 12, 1729; Dublin Ncw^ Letter, August 9-13, 
1737. 
(•) Leases in Registry of Deeds Office. 

(*) Registry of Deeds, Lib. 220, p. 663, 

H 



98 PARISH OF PALMERSTON. 

every hearer. As one *' who could go out in all weathers " he was 
found inestimable as a supporter of the Government, and was 
considered to have had the advantage of Henry Flood in debate. 
At the Bar his success was equally great, and the highest honours 
of his profession lay within his grasp. In the acceptance of the 
Provostship he made the fatal mistake of his life. After a long 
enjoyment of parliamentary fame it was then said that he was no 
speaker, and after the most lucrative practice at the Bar, that he 
was no lawyer. But, Hardy adds, all the force of wit and 
talent arrayed against him could not authenticate the supposed 
discoveries of a want of knowledge and ability ; his country thought 
far otherwise, and his reputation as a man of genius and an active, 
well-informed statesman remained undiminished to the last (i). 

The only other resident of importance in Palmerston parish 
at that time was the Right Hon. and Rev. Philip Smythe, fourth 
Viscount Strangford, whose descendants and successors in the title 
have made their mark in diplomacy, literature, and politics. 
Although Sir Thomas Smythe of Westenhanger, in the County 
Kent, on whom this Irish peerage was conferred by Charles I., 
is said to have been a person of opulent fortune, the 
fourth Viscount Strangford inherited only a small property 
from his father. The latter was educated abroad as a 
Roman Catholic, and married a French lady, but shortly 
before the birth of his son in 1715 came to Ireland, and 
having conformed to the Established Church took his seat 
in the Irish House of Lords. Although his will is written in 
French, he appears to have been able to take part in the politics 
of his day as a supporter of the English interest, and probably 
made friends who helped his son. The fourth Viscount, who was 
only a child at the time of his father's death, entered the Irish 
Church at an early age, but owing to the unhappy combination of 
ecclesiastic and legislator, reflected little credit on his profession. 
Perhaps the most remarkable event in his career was the fact that 
when only four years in Holy Orders he was nominated by the 
Crown to the Deanery of St. Patrick's en the death of Swift, 
but his nomination owing to the opposition of the Chapter was 



(*) " Memoirs of James, Earl of Charlemont,'* by Francis Hardy, vol. ii., p. 141: 
but cf. " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxv., p. 376, and authorities 
there quoted. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 99 

afterwards cancelled. His death took place at Palmerston in 
1787, and he was buried at Castleknock, where several members 
of his family were also subsequently interred (i). 

The stately residence which is still to be seen at Palmerston 
amongst the buildings of the Stewart Institute was erected by 
Provost Hutchinson; There he endeavoured to compete in magni- 
ficence of living with his rival, Philip Tisdal, at Stillorgan, but in 
matters gastronomic he had to surrender the palm to Tisdal, and 
when he was honoured with the Viceroy's company, he sought the 
loan of TisdaFs renowned cook (2) . In his domestic virtues Hut- 
chinson is said by Hardy to have been most exemplary, and his 
will bears touching testimony to his parental affection. In it he 
invokes on his children countless blessings, and from its terms it is 
evident that his chief pleasure in his riches and honours was the 
advantage which his children would derive from them. His 
prayers for his children have been amply answered, not only in 
their own success in life, but in the position to which his more 
remote descendants have attained. The peerage of Donoughmore, 
which was conferred upon Hutchinson's wife as a barony, and 
descended to his eldest son, in whose time the barony became 
merged in an earldom, has been held by a line of prominent public 
men, and in addition younger sons of the family have attained 
distinction as statesmen. Palmerston House, where Hutchinson's 
wife died in 1787, continued to be Hutchinson's principal resi- 
dence until his own death, which took place at Buxton in 1794, 
and after his decease it was occupied by his descendants until the 
middle of the last century (3) . 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTOHY. 

The church of Palmerston, now in ruins, lies to the north of the 
village, between the high road from Dublin to Lucan and the 
River Liffey. It consists of the remains of a nave and chancel, 
and resembles in its principal features many of the churches 



{^) Exshaw'a Magazine for 1787, p. 280; G.E.C.'s "Complete Peerage," 
vol. vii., p. 275 ; " Dictionary of National Biography,'* vol. liii., pp. 193-198 ; 
Manuscripts of the Duke of Portland, vol. v., p. 379, published by Historical 
Manuscripts Commission ; Archbishop Wake's Irish Letters, in Library of Christ 
Church, Oxford; Will of Endymion Smythe, Viscount Strangford ; O'Keeflfe's 
" Recollections of his Life," vol. i., p. 234. 

(8) " Baratariana," p. 252. 

(') " Dictionary of National Biography " vol, xxv„ pp. 376-381. 

h2 



151700 



100 PARISH OF PALMBRSTON. 

already described. The nave has been stated to measure twenty- 
nine feet by sixteen feet six inches, and the chancel fourteen feet 
nine inches by ten feet six inches on the inside. The walls are 
nearly three feet thick. The chancel arch is still standing, and 
the western wall, which is surmounted by a bell gable, contains a 
primitive square-headed doorway now built up and a large window. 
There is a round-headed light in the eastern wall, and a similar 
one in the southern wall, which also formerly contained a doorway, 
as a gap in the stonework indicates (i). 

The church of Palmerston was given by Milo le Bret, who has 
been mentioned in the history of Rathfarnham as the first Anglo- 
Norman owner of that place, to the Hospital of St. John the 
Baptist without Newgate, and about the year 1220 the church is 
returned as being in the possession of the Prior and the brethren 
of the Hospital. At the close of that century, when Palmerston 
was valued at ten marks, the tithes were considered insufficient to 
pay a chaplain. In the fifteenth century the church was doubt- 
less used, as we find more than one bequest left to it, but after the 
dissolution of the religious houses there is no mention of service 
being held in it. During the sixteenth century the tithes were 
leased to various lay owners without any provision for the supply 
of a chaplain, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century it 
was placed in charge of clergymen holding other cures. Thus it 
was held in 1615 by the Rev. Simon Swayne, in 1629 by the Rev. 
John Lenox, in 1639 by the Rev. Thomas Chantrell, and in 1643 
by the Rev. Gilbert Deane, who with the exception of Chantrell 
were in charge of Ballyfermct (2). 



(^) See *' Ante Norman Churches in the County Dublin," by W. F. Wakeman, 
in Journal R. 8. A. /., vol. xxii., p. 106, and Volume of Sketches by W. F. Wake- 
man, in possession of the Royal Irish Academy. 

(2) Liber Niger, p. 37 ; " Crede Mihi," edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 137 ; 
Christ Church Deed, No. 150 ; Berry's Register of Dublin Wills, 1457-1483, pp. 
90, 134, 135; Fiants Henry VIII., passim; Regal Visitation of 1615 ; "Liber 
Munerum," pt. v., p. 108 ; Visitation Books. 



PARISH OP BALLYFERMOT. 101 



Parish of Ballyfermot 

(i.e.., DermoCs toton). 

Tdis Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands of 
Ballyfermot and Gallanstown. 

It now contains the townlands of Ballyfermot Upper and Lower, Blackditch, and 
Gallanstown (i.e. the town of the pillar stone). 

The only object of antiquarian interest is the ruined church. 



BALLYFERMOT. 

Near the ruined church of Ballyfermot, which lies to the south of 
Palmerston, there stood in the early part of the nineteenth 
century, as shown in a sketch by the late Mr. Wakeman, which 
is here reproduced, a ruined castle. No trace of it is now to be 
found, and the only remains of old buildings in the vicinity of the 
church are a curious brick wall built with alcoves for the pro- 
tection of fruit trees, and an artificial fish pond partly faced with 
cut stone (i). 

It is probable from their name that the lands of Ballyfermot 
were portion of the property left after the Anglo-Norman conquest 
in possession of the Irish chief MacGillamocholmog, as mentioned 
under Esker, but the earliest owners of whom record has been 
found are William Fitzwilliam and Avicia his wife, who before 
1307 assigned a third of the manor of Ballyfermot to Thomas 
Cantock, Bishop of Emly and Chancellor of Ireland. After 
the Fitzwilliams Robert de ClahuU, a member of the family to 
which Dundrum then belonged, appears as owner of the manor. 
He had an only son Thomas, who died without issue, and six 
daughters, Johanna, Avicia, who married Philip de Cantelupe, 
Nichola, who married Wolfran, son of Reginald de Barnewall, the 
owner of the adjoining manor of Drimnagh, Anna, who married 
Philip Fitz Thomas, Alianor, who married John Coterel, and Alice, 



(i) See "The Lesser Castles in the County Dublin," by E. R. M'C. Dix, in The 
Irish Builder for 1898, pp. 168, 177 ; Volume of Sketches, by W. F. Wakeman, in 
possession of the Royal Irish Academy ; Sketches by G. V. du Noyer, in possession 
of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ; Cooper's Note Book. 



102 PARISH OP BALLYPfiRMOT. 

who maoried. Richard CSoterel. After Robert de Clahuirs death, 
which occurred before 1327, the manor of Ballyfermot was for a 
time divided amongst his daughters, but eventually cam«, together 
with the manor of Balrothery in the northern part of the County 
Dublin, which the de Clahulls also owned, into possession of 
Wolfran de Bamewairs son, and was held subsequently by the 
owners of Drimnagh for many generations (^). 

Amongst other persons connected with the place at that period 
were Stephen and his son Richard of Ballyfermot in 1290, and 
Robert son of Robert Bumell in 1339. The lands of Blackditch 
then belonged to the see of Dublin. In 1334, when they were partly 
tilled and partly stocked with cattle, they were in the hands of 
the Archbishop, but a century later, in 1435, they were leased, 
under the name of Balimkneigan, to Thomas Sanguine, a Dublin 
butcher, one of the fields being then described as ** the baron's 
mede," and one of the boundaries as '* the trench," whence arose 
doubtless the townland name Blackditch. The lands of Gallans- 
town, which formed a manor, were also ecclesiastical property. 
In 1441 they were in possession of the Bishop of Killaloe, Thomas 
O'Ghonelan, but he was found to be " Irish of the Irish natio<n 
and an enemy of the King," OfUd before long the lands became 
the property of St. Mary's Abbey, which held them until the 
dissolution of the religious houses (2). 

About the middle of the fourteenth century the manor of 
Ballyfermot, together with that of Balrothery, was in the custody 
of Sir Nicholas Gernon, but later on in that century, in 1392, 
both these manors appear as possessions of Wolfran de BarnewaU's 
son Reginald. From that time the Bamewalls are frequently 
referred to in connection with Ballyfermot; but of the inhabitants 
only a glimpse now and then can be caught. In 1395 Richard 
Butler, who was pardoned for killing one William Horsley in self 
defence, was living tliere, and in 1451 John Barnewall was a resi- 
dent. Coming down to Elizabethan times we find the 
castle of Ballyfermot occupied in 1562 by Luke Dillon, 
an eminent lawyer, who afterwards became Chief Baron of 



(i) Patent Rolls, p. 11 ; Plea Roll, 1 Edw. III., m. 2 ; 13 Edw. III., m. 8 ; Memo- 
randa Roll, 1 to 30 Edw. III., Nos. 49, 50. 

(«) Sweetman's Calendar, 1285-1292, p. 156 ; 1293-1301, pp. 26, 101 ; Memoranda 
Roll, 17 Edw. II., m. 24 ; Liber Niger, p. 370 ; Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. 
i., pp. xxxiv., 313 ; vol. ii., pp. 19, 60. 



BALLYFERM6T. 103 



the Exchequer, and is well known in connection with the history 
of his time; and in 1578 by Richard Wespey. At that time 
portion of the Ballyfermot lands, which in the fourteenth century 
had belonged to Robert Burnell and had descended from him to 




Ballyfermot Castle. 

From a drawing by W. F. Wakeman. 

the Burnells of BalgriflSn, were in the possession of the Crown 
owing to the attainder of the BalgriflSn family, and were held 
under the Crown by Thady Duffe, an alderman of Dublin, who 
was succeeded in occupation of them by several generations of his 
family (i). 

Towards the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign the most important 
resident in Ballyfermot Castle appears in the person of Sir Robert 
Newcomen, the founder of a family which was prominent in 
Ireland for more than two centuries and whose last representative 
was elevated to the peerage. Newcomen was an Englishman, the 
son of a Government oflScial in London, and came to this country 
about 1585 in the commissariat service. lie acted at first as 
deputy to the chief oflScer George Beverly, and afterwards is 
variously styled surveyor and purveyor of her Majesty's victuals 
in Ireland. His duties were arduous as well as responsible, but 
Newcomen succeeded in overcoming difficulties which arose no 
less from the scarcity of provisions in this country than from the 
uncertainty of communication with England. Both the English 
and Irish Councils joined in a chorus of praise of ** his fruitful 
success in executing his business," and bore testimony to his 



(i) Memoranda Roll, 38 Edward III., m. 31 ; Patent Roll, p. 152 ; Fiants, Edward 
VI., No. 1196 ; Elizabeth, Nos. 435, 2963 ; Monck Mason's Collection in British 
Museum, Egerton, 1773, f. 171 ; Decrees of Court of Claims, vol. iv., f, 208. 



104 PARISH OF BALLYFERMOT. 

integrity and discretion. These good qualities led Lord Mount J07 
while Lord Deputy to select Newcomen as one of his staff on all 
his expeditions in Ireland, and it was said — a rare thing in 
those days — that Newcomen's name had never been brought into 
question for any misdemeanour (i). In 1605 the honour of knight- 
hood was conferred upon him, in 1613 he was returned to 
parliament as member for Kilbeggan, and in 1623, when he had 
acquired further distinction as one of the Ulster undertakers, he 
was created a baronet. 

Newcomen doubtless owed his advancement partly to the family 
connections which he made. He was married three times, in each 
case under advantageous circumstances from a worldly point of 
view, but particularly in the first, as the lady was the daughter 
of one in a position to promote Newcomen's interests, Thomas 
Molyneux, the founder of the Castle Dillon family, who came 
to this country in the same service as Newcomen and became 
Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer. In addition, through the 
marriages of his eldest son and daughter to children of Sir William 
Ussher of Donnybrook, Newcomen was allied to that powerful 
and widespreading family. On his death in 1629 Sir Robert 
Newcomen was succeeded at Ballyfermot by his eldest son, 
who bore the name of his old chief, Beverly. Sir 
Beverly Newcomen had entered the army at an early age. At 
that period the navy drew its oflScers from the land force, and 
before long Sir Beverly Newcomen was attracted to the sea service 
and became commander of the ships guarding the Irish coasts. 
He is said to have possessed great knowledge of these seas and to 
have banished the pirates by whom they were then infested. 
Owing to the high reputation which he obtained as a bold and 
energetic officer he received the honour of knighthood and was 
appointed admiral of Ireland. In spite of what seems to have 
been, judging from his letters, a defective education even for 
those times, Newcomen took a leading place in civil as well as in 
military affairs, and sat in the Irish parliament, first with his 
father for Kilbeggan and afterwards for Tralee (2). 



(^) Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1586-1647, passim; but cf. with regard to 
Sir Robert Newcomen's character, a paper by Mr. Litton Falkiner on Bamaby Rich's 
Remembrances of the State of Ireland, 1612, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish 
Academy, vol. xxvi., sec. C, p. 132. There is reason to think that Rich's statements 
may have been actuated, as in other cases, by jealousy. 

(*) G. E. C.'s " Complete Baronetage," vol. i., pp. 254, 255 ; Falkiner s " Illustrations 
of Irish History and Topography," pp: 399, 405 ; Return of Members of Parliament. 



BALLYFERMOT. 105 



When engaged in sounding Waterford harbour in 1637 Sir 
Beverly met an untimely fate and was drowned. By his wife 
Margaret Ussher he had two children, a son who was drowned 
with him, and a daughter who succeeded him at Ballyfermot. 
She was twice married, first as his second wife to the eldest son of 
Sir William Parsons, one of the Lords Justices at the time of the 
rebellion, who has been already mentioned in this history, and 
will be again referred to in connection with the parish of Clon- 
dalkin in which he had a residence; and secondly to Sir Hubert 
Adrian, who was mayor of Dublin in the Restoration year 1660, 
and seems to have then assumed the additional name of Verveer. 
He died in 1665, and subsequently we find his widow involved in 
litigation with a mortgagee regarding Ballyfermot (i). 

Besides the Castle of Ballyfermot, which was rated as containing 
ten hearths and as occupied by Sir Hubert Adrian- Verveer, there 
were about the time of the Restoration some twenty other houses 
in the parish, the population of which was returned as about 
ninety. Only two of these houses contained more than one 
hearth ; one of them, " a castle like house with the ruins of a gate 
house near it" on the lands of Gallanstown, was occupied by 
Richard Styles and subsequently by "the widow Waterhouse," 
and the other was occupied by William Garden. Before that time 
the Barnewalls had lost all interest in the Ballyfermot lands, and 
besides the Adrian-Verveers, Lady Ryres, widow of Sir William 
Ryves, who has been mentioned in connection with Booterstown, 
John Exham, and Sir Henry Talbot of Templeogue appear as 
owners of them. Later on in the seventeenth century Sir Henry 
Talbot's interest passed to Sir Thomas Domvile, whose representa- 
tives subsequently became the principal proprietors in the 
parish (2). The castle appears to have declined rapidly in 
importance, and towards the close of the eighteenth century a 
school was kept in it by Mr. William Oulton Prossor (3). 



(i) Lodge's Peerage, vol. vii., p. 252 ; Gilbert's " Ancient Records of Dublin," 
vol. iv., pp. 181, 194, et passim ; Chancery Decree of the year 1670. 

(*) Hearth Money Roll ; Survey of Newcastle and Uppercross ; Down Survey 
Map ; Census of 1659 ; Subsidy Rolls ; Book of Distribution and Survey. 

(8) The Irish Builder for 1898, p. 168. 



106 



BALLYFERMOT — ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The ruins of Ballyfermot Church, although those of one of the 
larger ruined churches in the county, the measurement being some 
fifty-four feet by nineteen, display no architectural feature of 
interest, and indicate that the structure of which they formed a 
portion was, like the church of Kilmactalway, of late date, with 
possibly more than one predecessor on its site. The advowson of 
the church, which is said to have been dedicated to St. Laurence, 
was in the thirteenth century in the possession of the adjacent 
Priory of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham, and so remained 
until the dissolution of that house in the sixteenth century. Sub- 




Ballyfermot Church. 

From a draicing by W. F. Wakeman. 

sequently the tithes were leased by the Crown to various lay 
owners, including in 1608 James Hamilton, Viscount Clandeboy, 
by whom they were assigned to Sir Edward Blayney of 
Monaghan. There is no record to show the condition of the 
church at that time, but it was presumably in repair, as there 
appear in charge of it in 1615 the Rev. Simon Swayne, in 1628 
the Rev. Matthew Forster, in 1629 the Rev. John Lenox, in 
1639 the Rev. Thomas Humphries, and in 1643 the Rev Gilbert 
Deane. After the Restoration it does not iappear to have been 
used (1). 



(1) "Crede Mihi," edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 138 ; Patent Rolls, James I., 
pp. 130, 133 ; Regal Visitation, 1615 ; Liber Munerum, pt. v., pp. 107, 108 ; Visitation 
Books. 



CLONDALKIN. 107 



Parish of Clondalkin 

(i.e., DolcarCs meadow). 



This Parish is returned in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands oi 
BlundelstoAvn, Ballybane, Ballymount, Ballycheevers, Ballygaddy, Clondalkin, 
Clutterland, CoUinstown, Carrollstown, Corkagh, Clonburrows, Collcott, Cold- 
well, Deansrath, Fox and Geese, Nangor, Neillstown, Newland, Priestown, 
Ronanotown, and Rahan. 

It now contains the townlands of Ashfield, Balgaddy (i.e. the town of the thief). 
Bally bane (i.e., the white town), Bally managgin, Bally mount Great and 
Little, Bawnoges (i.e., the little green field), Bedlesshill, Blundelstown, 
Brideswell Commons, Buck-and-hounds, Bushelloaf, Cappagh (i.e., the tillage 
land), Cheeverstown, Clonburris {i.e., the meadow of the borough) Great and 
Little, Clondalkin, Clutterland (i.e., shelter land), Coldcut, Collinstown, 
Commons, Corkagh (i.e., the marsh), Corkagh Demesne, Deansrath, Fairview, 
Fox- and- geese, Fox-and-geese Common, Gibraltar, Kingswood, Knockmitten 
(i.e., Mittan's hill), Mooreenaruggan, Nangor (i.e., the place of nettles), Neills- 
town, Newlands, Newlands Demesne, Priest Town, Raheen (i.e., the little rath), 
Redcow, Ronanstown, and Yellowineadows. 

The objects of antiquarian interest are the round tower in Clondalkin village, two 
early crosses in the churchyard, and remains of the castles of Ballymount, 
Cheeverstown, Clondalkin, Deansrath, and Nangor. 

There is a well in the parish known as St. Bridget's Well. 



CLONDALKIN. 

The parish of Clondalkin, which adjoins Ballyfermot on the 
east, possesses interest for the antiquary as the site of one of 
those remarkable buildings so often used to symbolize Irish 
archaeology, a round tower. In addition to this round tower, 
one of the few remaining in a perfect condition (i), many 
other relics of past ages have been discovered in the parish, 
which extends from the parish of Palmerston to that of 
Tallaght, and from the parish of Kilmactalway to that of Drim- 
nagh, with an outlying portion containing the townland of 
Blundelstown, surrounded by lands in the parishes of Rathcoole 
J 

(^) " A List of the Round Towers of Ireland," by T. J. Westropp, in Proceedings 
of the Royal Irish Academy, Ser. 3, vol. v., pp. 294-311. 



108 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 

and Kilmactalway. Within its limits at places known as Bally- 
mount, Cheeverstown, Deansrath, and Nangor, as well as at Clon- 
dalkin itself, remains of fortified dwellings are still visible (i). 

But notwithstanding these indications of stirring events in by- 
gone days Clondalkin and the ether places within the parish add 
little to the history of the county. Only the slightest information 
is available about Clondalkin in the period preceding the Anglo- 
Norman invasion, the period in which the place was perhaps most 
famous, and after the invasion, owing to the frequent changes in 
the residents and number of owners in the parish, continuous 
narration is even more than usually difficult. Like Tallaght, 
Clondalkin was the site of a Celtic monastery. Of this monastery 
record only relates the name of its founder, St. Mochua, and 
the names of its chief inmates, which will be given in the ecclesias- 
tical portion of the history of the parish. Clondalkin is also one 
of the few places in the county where there is known to have been 
a Scandinavian settlement. But there are only two references to 
the connection of the Norsemen with it. In 832 it is mentioned 
that the foreigners plundered Clondalkin, and in 865 it is stated 
that a fortress there, which the Scandinavians called Dun 
Amhlaeibh after their king, was burned by the son of Gaithen, 
chief of Leix, and Ciaren son of Ronan, who exhibited the heads 
of a hundred foreigners as the result of their prowess in the 
slaughter of its defenders. The only other reference to Clon- 
dalkin before the Anglo-Norman invasion is a statement that in 
1071 it was again burned, but by whom is not recorded (2). 

After the Anglo-Norman invasion, during which Roderic 
O' Conor with the Irish forces lay for a time near Clondalkin, the 
land belonging to the Celtic monastery passed into the possession 
of the Archbishop of Dublin, and Clondalkin became the centre 
of one of the largest manors belonging to the metropolitan see. 
In the thirteenth century the town had many inhabitants and was 
ruled by a bailijBF, an office held in 1276 by one Robert Beg. As 
has been mentioned in connection with Tallaght, Clondalkin could 
furnish a strong militia force, and its trade, as shown by thei 
existence of an official weighmaster, was considerable. A manor 



(}) See " The Lesser Castles in the County Dublin," by E. R. M'C. Dix, in The 
Irish BuUder for 1897, pp. 170, 178 ; for 1898, pp. 9, 19, 57. 

(') " Annals of the Four Masters." 



ChONDALKlN. 



109 




'« 
§ 
^ 



I I 



n ^ 



^ 

'« 



110 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 

house there afforded then an occasional residence for the Arch- 
bishop^ and in his absence it was left in charge of a constable, 
whom we find supplied by his lord with a robe in winter and a 
tunic in summer. In the accounts of the manor revenue is 
included from fines and imprisonments as well as the usual profit 
of the manor court, and amongst the other items may be noted 
receipts indicating that the Archbishop had lands in his own 
hands at a place called Ballymacnagh, or the town of the parsnips, 
as well as at Clondalkin, and that the manor contained a mill 
and a bog. The townlands of Nangor and Blundelstown were 
held directly from the Crown by service, and at that period Nangor 
was held with Kilbride by the Comyns of BalgriflSn, and Blundels- 
town by Laurence Blundell (i). 

The incursions of the Irish tribes during the early part of the 
fourteenth century were felt in Clondalkin, although perhaps not 
so severely as in the Archbishop's more southern manors. In 
1324 Archbishop de Bicknor is stated to have had some corn and 
live stock, including eighty head of cattle and two hundred sheep, 
on his Clondalkin lands, but the survey made two years later gives 
the impression of a country in a great measure denuded of live 
stock as well as of inhabitants, and only partially cultivated. The 
Archbishop's residence at Clondalkin, described as a chamber and 
a chapel badly roofed with shingles, together with a stone stable 
and two thatched cottages, are valued at nothing '* because no 
one wished to use them." The curtilage was also worthless, as 
well as the orchard '* for want of apple trees," and the dovecot 
was in ruins. Only a few betaghs remained on the lands and 
most of the tenants were English, many of them being burgesses 
of the town of Clondalkin. The manor appears from this survey 
to have been of great extent, including a large tract which then 
lay ** waste and uncultivated owing to the weakness of the soil," 
a wood which was without profit * * except by making great destruc- 
tion and waste," a moor, and a warren. The majority of the 
place names can no longer be identified, but amongst them we find 
Cappagh, which lay ** amongst the Irish," and Corkagh (2). 



(^) Svveetman's Calendar, 1171-1252, No. 1787 ; Proceedings of the Royal Irish 
Academy, vol. v., pp. 152, 160, 161 ; Pipe Roll, 3 to 6 Edw. I., No. 9 ; Mills' Norman 
Settlement, p. 173 ; Crede Mihi, edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 114. 

(2) Memoranda Roll, 16 & 17 Edw. II., m. 24 ; Liber Niger, pp. 730-740. 



CLONDALKIN. Ill 



At the close of the fourteenth century Clondalkin contained no 
less than five streets, known as Mill Street, Steeple Street, Pope 
Lane, New Street, and Mahow Street. This appears from an 
inquisition about property assigned in 1393 to the church of 
Clondalkin by one John Shillingford, who gave to it not only 
houses in the town but also farms and a wood called the White 
Firs. Amongst the inhabitants we find in 1345 John FitzSimons 
described as late guardian of trade in Ireland who in that year 
returned to the Exchequer sundry standard measures and weights, 
including an iron-bound bushel, a brass flagon and groat, an iron 
ell and brass and lead weights, together with seals used for stamp- 
ing those tested and fcund correct. The Neills, a family from 
whom a townland in the parish takes its name, were then 
prominent people in the Clondalkin neighbourhood. In 1305 two 
members of the family, Richard and Peter Neill, were granted 
liberty to use English laws, and later on, in 1355, Simon Neill, who 
had property in Dublin in New Street as well as at Clondalkin, 
claimed to be allied to the great Ulster family of his name. This 
claim was made in an action for trespass taken by Simon Neill, in 
which the defendant sheltered himself under the plea that Neill 
was mere Irish, and not of the free bloods. The jury found for 
Neill, but it is thought their finding is evidence of a desire to 
construe the law in favour of the natives rather than proof of 
noble descent in Neill. 

At the beginning of the fifteenth century we find one Roger 
Bekeford dealing with Simon Neill's property as his grandson and 
heir in the female line, but the male line of the family was not 
extinct, and many years afterwards, in 1471, one of the name 
William Neill died at Clondalkin in affluent circumstances. He 
was a tanner, and bequeathed his tan-house and implements to 
his son, ** Sir John Neill, clerk," although the latter was in holy 
orders. The residue of his goods he desires his executors, his wife 
Alson Cristore and his son, ** having God before their eyes," to 
arrange and dispose of to pious uses ** with all and singular which 
things he by these presents charges their consciences." Shortly 
after William Neill's death the aid of parliament was invoked by 
the Vicars Choral of St. Patrick's Cathedral with regard to a farm 
at Clondalkin, known as the Bay cr Jesus farm, which the Arch- 
bishop of Dublin had granted to them in order that the mass of 
Jesus might be more honourably performed in the cathedral, and 
from which they had been ejected successively by John Galbarry 



112 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 



and Simon Harold. Proclamation was ordered to be made for 
the intruders, and the Court of Common Pleas was directed to 
try the cause, or in the event of the intruders failing to appear to 
reinstate the Vicars Choral. Of the occupants of the lands at that 
time something may be learned from the wills of two tillage 
farmers at Clondalkin, Nicholas Keating and John Browne, who 
mention crops of wheat, barley and oats, in the cultivation of 
which Keating employed six horses and Browne five (^). 

In the surveys and inquisition of the sixteenth century other 
owners of lands in Clondalkin parish, either under the Archbishop 
or in fee, appear, amongst them being the Friars Minor, St. 
Mary*s Abbey, and thq Dean and Economy Fund as well as the 
Vicars Choral of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Of these the most 
important was the Dean of St. Patrick's, to whom the castle! of 
Deansrath, a fragment of which remains, and a large extent of 
lands belonged. Before the dissolution of the Cathedral in 1547 
the Dean at that time, Edward Bassenet, **the scoundrel who 
surrendered the deanery to that beast Henry VIII.," as Swift 
says, had leased Deansrath to one of his brothers, Ffinian 
Bassenet, and after the dissolution the Dean was living there 
himself. Dean Bassenet certainly did not neglect his own interests 
whatever he may have done with regard to those of his Cathedral. 
As we have seen, in addition to Deansrath he secured for himself 
the possessions of St. Mary's Abbey at Kiltiernan, and he planted 
various members of his family on lands in the parishes of Clon- 
dalkin and Kilmactalway. 

At the commencement of Queen Elizabeth's reign in 1532 
Alexander Craik, who held the deanery of St. Patrick's together 
with the Bishopric of Kildare, dated more than one letter from 
** his poor house the Deansrath," but Dean Bassenet had carefully 
secured the property for his descendants, and Craik's successor, 
Dean Weston, was dispossessed by Dean Bassenet's son. The 
latter's uncle, Ffinian Bassenet, was then stated to be residing at 
Nangor, and it was not until the beginning of the seventeenth 
century that the Bassenets, who had before then retired to Wales, 



(*) Exchequer Inquisition Co. Dublin, Eliz., No. 97, Jac. I., No. 18 ; Memoranda 
Roll, 18 & 19 Edw. III., m. 51 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 1302-1307, No. 386 ; 
"Tenants and Agriculture near Dublin in the Fourteenth Century," by James 
Mills, in Journal R.S.A.I., vol. xxi., p. 56 ; Liber Niger, p. 400 ; Berry's Register of 
Wills, 1457-1483, pp. 94, 112, 162, 220; Mason's "History of St. Patrick's 
Cathedral," pp. 71, 90. 



GLONDALKIN. 113 



the country of their birth, with their Irish spoils, finally parted 
with their interest in Deansrath, which then reverted to St. 
Patrick's deanery. In 1584 that castle was occupied by William 
Collier, who was afterwards appointed seneschal of the King's 
County and knighted, and in 1596, when it is mentioned as one 
of the castles guarding the Pale, it was in possession of Nathaniel 
Smith. The family of Browne is at that period frequently men- 
tioned in connection with Clondalkin, then considered one of the 
chief villages in the metropolitan county. In 1538 Nicholas 
Browne was leased the Jesus farm, and in 1561 Margaret 
Browne of Clondalkin was robbed by a kern who gained a pardon 
by ''raising a cry" and preventing the escape of some prisoners 
from Dublin Castle, where he was confined. Later on Nicholas 
Browne, a husbandman, Christopher Browne, a chaplain, and 
William Browne of Rowlagh in Esker parish, are mentioned as 
holding lands in Clondalkin parish, and in 1632 Patrick Browne, 
'* a great abettor and maintainer of friars and priests," was resi- 
dent on the lands of Neillstown (^). 

Newlands, a seat of which some account has been given under 
Tallaght, and which as there stated lies partly in the parish of 
Clondalkin, became in the seventeenth century the principal 
residence in the vicinity of Clondalkin village. Before the arrival 
at Newlands, in the Commonwealth period, of Sir John Cole, who 
has been mentioned as the first resident there, a house had stood 
on the lands and had been for many years the country seat of two 
members of the illustrious Molyneux family, Samuel Molyneux 
and Daniel Molyneux, who were respectively appointed by Queen 
Elizabeth Clerk of the Works in Ireland and Ulster King of Arms. 
They were sons of Thomas Molyneux, sometime Chancellor of the 
Exchequer in Ireland, who has been already referred to as the 
father-in-law of Sir Robert Newcomen of Bally fermot. Thomas 
Molyneux's career was a curious and interesting one. He was a 
native of Calais, which at the time of his birth in 1531 was an 
English possession, but on its being retaken by the French 
he migrated to Bruges in Flanders, where he married the daughter 
of a burgomaster of high repute and considerable wealth. Thence 
he came to England, and in 1581 we find him in Ireland, where 
one of his name, Edward Molyneux, had not long before filled 

(^) Fiants Henry VIII. to Elizabeth, passim; Exchequer Inquisition, Henry VIII., 
Co. Dublin, No. 153 ; Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 26, 28, 29, 
81, 96, 150 ; Chancery Decrees Repository, vol. i., p. 54 ; Shirley's " Original 
Letters and Papers in illustration of the History of the Church of Ireland," pp. 
108,111 ; Calendar of Carew State Papers, 1589-1600, p. 189; "Description of 
Ireland in 1598," edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, p. 37 ; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 
James I., p. 65 ; Exchequer Fine Rolls ; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 153. 



114 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 



the office of Clerk of the Council. Thomas Molyneux was then 
described as keeper of the store in Dublin, and it was not until 
1590 that he appears to have been appointed Chancellor of the 
Exchequer. An attempt was made to deprive him of the latter 
office on the ground that he was a foreigner, but he was found to 
be a true and loyal subject ** of Christian religion using sermons 
and other goodly exercises," and remained head of the Exchequer 
until his death. He is said to have been remarkable for his 
hospitality and splendid entertainments, and besides his town 
house in Thomas Court, rented the castle of Tallaght as a 
country residence from the Archbishop of Dublin, Adam Loftus, 
who was then residing at Rathfarnham. 

It was not long after his death, which occurred in 1596, that his 
sons Samuel and Daniel Molyneux acquired Newlands and other 
adjacent property from a member of the Stany hurst family, and 
their position in the neighbourhood was established by the appoint- 
ment soon afterwards of Samuel Molyneux as seneschal of the 
Crown manors of Newcastle, Saggart, Esker and Crumlin. 
Samuel Molyneux is first mentioned in 1595 as " the victualler's 
man," and appears to have then acted as assistant to his brother- 
in-law. Sir Robert Newcomen, but in 1600 he was appointed 
Clerk of the Works, and was also sometime Marshal of the Star 
or Castle Chamber, an office to which it was said he was elected 
** without warrant and to no end." To his energy as Clerk of 
the Works his papers in the Library of Trinity College bear testi- 
mony, and his prominent position secured his return to the Irish 
parliament of 1613 as member for Mallow. He died unmarried, 
and it is from his brother, Daniel Molyneux, who married a 
daughter of Sir William Ussher of Donnybrook, that the famous 
philosopher, and the distinguished physician on whom a baronetcy 
was conferred, were descended. 

Daniel Molyneux was educated at Cambridge University, and 
in the opinion of the great Primate Ussher was *' for learning and 
parts a Daniel indeed." His attainments fitted him for the office 
of Ulster King of Arms, to which he was appointed in 1597, and 
in which he gained much distinction. As in the case of his 
brother, the Library of Trinity College contains a large collection 
of his papers, and also like his brother he occupied a seat in the 
parliament of 1613, but for a northern borough, that of Strabane. 
Before that parliament met we find him in London endeavouring 
in his official capacity to obtain parliament robes, cloth of estate, 
and other necessaries from the English Privy Council, who did 
not find it convenient to attend to him as it >ya5 the time of their 



CLONDALKIN. 115 



summer vacation. His relations with his brother-in-law, Sir 
Robert Newcomen, are said to have been far from cordial, and an 
account is preserved of an extraordinary assault committed on 
him by one of Newcomen's sons-in-law. The alleged cause was a 
decision given by Daniel Molyneux in a question of precedency 
in which the assailant's wife was concerned, but from a reference 
in Thomas Molyneux's will to his daughter's dissatisfaction with 
the fortune which he had given her, it is probable that the assault 
arose from family disputes. Daniel Molyneux died in 1632, and 
appears to have closed ** his pilgrimage in this vale of tears " at 
Newlands (i). 

About the time that the Molyneux family settled near Clondalkin 
a statesman already frequently noticed in the history of this part 
of the metropolitan county, Sir William Parsons, who played so 
prominent a part in the government of Ireland during the rebellion 
of 1641, and founded in this country the family ennobled under the 
title of Rosse, becamp seated in the parish on the lands of Bally- 
mount. The house at Bally mount was strongly fortified, and 
there still remain the ruins of a great gateway forming the 




Ballymount Oateway. 

From a photograph by Mr. T. J. Wesiro'pp. 



(^) Dublin University Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 305, ct scq. ; The Irish Builder for 
1887, p. 101 ; Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxviii, p. 137 ; Calendar of 
Irish State Papers, 1609-1632, passim ; Finlayson's " Inscriptions in Christ Church 
Cathedral," pp. 69, 70 } Wills of Thomas and Pjkftiel MpJyiieux. 

I 2 



116 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 



entrance to what must have been a curtilage of considerable extent, 
as well as an underground passage, probably originally con- 
structed for drainage purposes. A mound, which stands 




The Mound at Ballymount. 

From a photograph hy Mr. T. J. Westropp 

near the house and from which the lands take their name, has 

been thought by some persons to be artificial and of very ancient 

construction ; but this is still a matter of doubt, as is the origin 

of a ruined circular building by which the mound is surmounted. 

By Parsons the name of Ballymount was changed to Bellamont, 

and under the latter designation the place gave name to the manor 

of Bellamont, in which were included, under a grant fi*om 

James I. made in 1622, not only the lands acquired by Parsons in 

the parish of Clondalkin, but also those belonging to him in the 

parishes of Saggart and Tallaght. One of the few references 

to Ballymount at this time occurs in the diary of the great Earl 

of Cork, with whom Parse ns was connected through the Fentons. 

From this entry it appears that in 1636 the Earl's eldest son. 

Lord Dungarvan, sent his first child, when only a few months old, 

with her nurses to live there ; and the Earl relates how in June of 

that year he rode to Ballymount with his daughter-in-law, and 

how they took the child away with them to Maynooth, whither 

they went, as he takes care to mention, by the road through Lucan. 

Sir William Parsons came to Ireland, like his kinsman the Earl 

of Cork, with only a small amount of money, but ** being plodding, 



CLONDALKIN. 117 



assiduous, and indefatigable, greedy of office and eager to raise 
a fortune," he quickly gained influence and wealth. Originally 
assistant to his uncle Sir Geoffrey Fenton as Surveyor-General of 
Ireland he succeeded in 1602 to that office ; in 1613 he was 
returned, as already stated, to represent the borough of Newcastle 
Lyons in parliament ; and in 1620 he was knighted and created a 
baronet. On his suggestion a court of wards was established in 
Ireland about the latter time, of which he became the master, 
and we find him urging that the guardianship of Viscount Thurles, 
afterwards first Duke of Ormonde, should be secured on the 
ground of the advantage of controlling the education of so great 
a person, and of the profit which would accrue to the Crown. Of 
Parsons' subsequent life, his prudent conduct under the Earl of 
Strafford, his administration of the affairs of State during the 
rebellion, and the differences which led to his being deprived of 
office and placed under arrest, the history of his time tells. After 
his deprivation of office he retired to England and died in 1650 in 
London, where he is buried in St. Margaret's Church, West- 
minster. His eldest son, Richard Parsons, who married first a 
daughter of Sir Adam Loftus of Rathfarnham, and secondly a 
daughter of Sir Beverly Newcomen of Ballyfermot, died before 
him, and he was succeeded by Richard Parsons' eldest son by hig 
first wife. Sir William Parsons the younger. The latter, who only 
survived his grandfather eight years, was residing in Ireland 
before his death, and describes himself as of Bellamont in his will, 
but probably did not reside there, as the Castle is stated to have 
been burned in 1646 by the Irish army (i). 

The rebellion of 1641 left its mark on Clondalkin parish, which 
for a time was at the mercy of the insurgents. In January, 1642, 
the village was burned by a troop of horse sent from Dublin, and 
in June of that year Sir William Parsons advised that the castle 
of Deansrath should be demolished " to ease the town and to 
help to free the country." Most of the castles in the parish were 
doubtless destroyed at that time. According to the Down Survey 
made in 1657 there stood then at Clondalkin only the stump of 
a castle, some thatched houses and the round tower, or a high 



(^) Calendar of Patent Rolls, James I., p. 526 ; G. E. C.'s " Complete Baronetage," 
vol. i., p. 226 ; " Lismore Papers," Ser. i., vol. iv., p. 195 ; Carte Papers, vol. xxx., 
f. 108 ; vol. Ixviii., f. 498 ; Wills of Sir William Parsons, senior and junior ; 
Manuscripts of Earl of Egmont, vol. i., p. 335, published by Historical Manuscripts 
Commission. 



118 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 

watch tower as it is called, and at Neillstown the ruins of a 
castle with three or four cottages. The owners and residents in 
the parish also underwent at that time great change. Before the 
Commonwealth the owners included, beside the Archbishop of 
Dublin, the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Sir William 
Parsons, two local families the Brownes and the Mileses, the 
Eustaces of Confey, the Talbots of Belgard and Templeogue, the 
Nottinghams of Bally owen in Esker parish, and the Dillons of 
Cappock; and amongst the residents we find at Blundelstown 
Nicholas Hart, at Newlands William Clinch, and at Nangor 
Margaret Lock, a widow. During the Commonwealth the principal 
persons connected with the parish were John Foy at Clondalkin, 
and William Greene at Nangor, and after the Restoration we find 
besides Sir John Cole at Newlands, Anthony Wynne at Bally- 
mount, John Lyons at Fox-and-Geese, John Harvey at Bally- 
cheevers, and William Trundell at Corkagh (i). 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Newlands was occu- 
pied under a lease from Sir John Cole's son. Sir Arthur Cole, 
afterwards created Lord Ranelagh, by Mr. Robert Smith, who 
appears to have been connected with the county of Cumberland 
and died in 1708 (2), and Ballymount was occupied about the 
same time by Mr. John Butler, a son of the famous Sir Theobald 
Butler, Solicitor-General in Ireland to James II. (3). A house 
which stood in that century close to the ruined castle in Clondalkin 
village, and which bore the date 1714, and a heraldic device with 
a buck's head as the crest, a displayed eagle as the arms, and 
" virtus omnia coronat" as the motto, was probably erected by the 
Browne family, who still owned property in the parish (^). Some 
of the lands which were forfeited during the revolution were pur- 
chased by Mr. Joseph Budden, one of the Commissioners for the 
sale of forfeited estates, and by Mr. Lewis Chaigneau, one of the 
French settlers then engaged in trade in Dublin. Nangor Castle 
was portion of the property purchased by Mr. Joseph Budden, 



O Manuscript in Trinity College Library, F. 2, 11, No. 3 ; Carte Papers, vol. iii., 
f. 237 ; Down Survey ; Book of Survey and Distribution ; Commonwealth Survey 
of Newcastle and Uppercross ; Census of 1659; Hearth Money Roll; Subsidy 
Rolls. 

(2) Will of Robert Smith. 

(3) Will of John Butlor ; Lodge's Peerage, vol. vi., p. 234. 
(*) Cooper's Note Book ; Will of Stephen Browne. 



CLONDALKlN. 119 



and this subsequently became the country residence of his son-in- 
law, Mr. John Falkiner, who has been already mentioned as owner 
of property at Terenure under the Deane family. The existing 
house at Nangor, which is in the Queen Anne style, was built by 
Mr. Falkiner as an addition to the castle, and there he maintained 
a large establishment befitting one who had served as High Sheriff 
of his county. His only surviving son died at Nangor in 1742, 
and after his own death Nangor passed to his grandson, Mr. 
Daniel Rogers (i). Mr. Lewis Chaigneau was succeeded at 
Clondalkin by his son, Mr. David Chaigneau, who with Mr. John 
Falkiner served frequently as churchwarden of the parish, and 
whose two daughters were married respectively in Clondalkin 
Church by his neighbour Archbishop Hoadly, to Mr. James 
Digges La Touche and Mr. Thomas Hassard (2). Another 
resident in the parish was Mr. Edward Madden, a member of the 
Fermanagh family and brother of Premium Madden. Mr. 
Madden, who was deputy clerk of the Crown and Hanaper, resided 
at Whitehall, where in 1769 he died (3). In 1763 Mr. Marinus 
James Kennedy died at Clondalkin in consequence, it was generally 
believed, of violence. He was a descendant of Alderman Walter 
Kennedy, who has been mentioned as a resident in Esker parish. 
His wife was a niece of the second Duke of Ormonde, and he was 
much connected with the Jacobite interest (^). 

The parish was on more than one occasion selected as the site 
of gunpowder mills, and was the scene of two disastrous explosions. 
Early in the century, in the year 1733, it is stated that ** the 
gunpowder mills near Clondalkin were blown up, by which several 
persons received much damage" (5). Fifty years later, in 1782, 
the foundation stone of new mills was laid in what is now known 
as Moyle Park under most distinguished auspices. The construc- 
tion of these mills had its origin in the volunteer movement and 
was undertaken by Mr. William Caldbeck, a well-known barrister 



(A) Willa of Joseph Budden and John Falkiner; Burke's "Landed Gentiy of 
Ireland. ** 

(*) Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead 
in Ireland, vol iii., pp. 434-437. 

(3) Will of Edward Madden ; Burke's " Landed Gentry of Ireland," under 
Madden of Hilton. 

(♦) Ex8haw*8 Magazine for 1763, p. 504 ; The Irith Quarterly Review, vol. iii., 
p. 610. 



(6) Dublin Evening Post, Nov. 24-27, 1733. 



120 PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 



of that time who had become a resident in the parish (^). He 
was colonel of the lawyers* corps, and we are told had previously 
built at his own expense a foundry for casting brass cannon for 
the volunteers. The foundation stone of the gunpowder mills was 
laid on a May day by the first Earl of Charlemont, who had the 
assistance' of Lord Delvin and of Mr. Caldbeck's neighbour at 
Fortfield House, Barry Yelverton, afterwards Lord Avonmore (2). 
The ceremony was attended by a number of the volunteers, who 
had marched to Clondalkin from the Phoenix Park, where they 
had been reviewed, and who, after the stone was laid, were 
entertained by Mr. Caldbeck in his garden on '* every sub- 
stantial dish fitting for soldiers, with abundance of wine, Irish 
porter and native whiskey." The mills inaugurated with 
so much splendour were blown up in their turn five years 
afterwards with an explosion of the most terrific character. Only 
two lives were lost, but it is said that pieces of the building 
several tons in weight were found six fields away, and that the 
concussion was felt so severely even in Dublin that it caused the 
fall of a stack of chimneys on Usher's Quay (3). 

The village of Clondalkin is described by Austin Cooper as being 
in 1780 a very small one, but it then contained more remains 
than at present of ancient buildings. Besides the round tower and 
the mediaeval church there stood, some distance to the north-west 
of these, a low castle used as a mill, and there were at the entrance 
of the town from Dublin the ruins of two castles as well as of the 
house which has been previously referred to as built in 1714. 
During the eighteenth century the Finlay family settled at 
Corkagh, now the most important residence in the parish, and 
at the close of the eighteenth century Colonel John Finlay, who 
afterwards represented the metropolitan county in parliament, and 



(^) Fitzpatrick's " Sham Squire,'* p. 61. 

(^; The stone bore on one side the following texts : -" Thus, saith the Lord, ye 
were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man 
to his neighbours." — Jer. 34. " Again shall l« heard in this place the voice of joy 
and the voice of gladness ; Behold the day is come when I will perform the good 
thing which I have promised." — Jer. 33. " This land that was desolate is become 
like the garden of Eden, and the waste and ruined cities are become fenced and 
inhabited by men." — Ezekiel 36. On the opposite side were the words, " This first 
£tone of the first volunteer powder mills in Ireland is now laid by the Right 
Honourable James, Earl of Charlemont, this 28th day of May, 1782." 

(») Exshmv's Magazine for 1782, p. 280 ; for 1787, p. 278 ; Brewer's "Beauties of 
Ireland," vol. i., p. 207. 



CLONDALKIN — ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 121 

Arthur Wolfe, Viscount Kilwarden, then residing at Newlands, 
were the most prominent parishioners. As commander of the 
Uppercross Fusiliers Colonel Finlay was active in the volunteer 
movement, and during the rising under Robert Emmet in 1803 
we find him applying to the Government for protection for powder 
mills which had been once again erected near Clondalkin (i). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The present church of Clondalkin is comparatively modern and 
uninteresting, but it occupies the site of what must have been one 
of the finest mediaeval churches in the County Dublin (2). That 
church adjoined the round tower, which is separated from the 
present church by the public road, and doubtless took the place 
of an early Celtic place of worship. 

As has been already stated, a Celtic monastery was founded at 
Clondalkin by St. Mochua or Cronan, who is styled Bishop and 
Abbot of Clondalkin, and whose festival is celebrated on August 
6th. Amongst his successors we find uElbran Ua Lagudon who 
died in 781, Fearfughaill who died in 789, Feidhlimidh Ua 
Lugadon who died in 801, Tibraide son of Rechtabhar who died 
in 828, Cathal son of Cormac who died in 879, Ronan son of Cathal 
who died in 885, Maelinmhain Ua Glascon who died in 920, 
Duibhinnreacht son of Ronan who died in 938, and Fiachna 
Ua Ronain who. died *in 1086. The last named is said to have 
assumed the abbacy in violation of the right of the son of Mael- 
dalua, and in 1076 an atmy was led by the clergy of Leath Mhoga 
with the son of Maeldalua to expel him, with the result that a 
church and lands at Clondalkin were given to the Culdees, and that 
a fine of twelve score cows was paid to the son of Maeldalua (3). 



(^) Cooper's Note Book ; Burke's ** Landed Gentry of Ireland," under Finlaya 
of Corkagh ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1779, p. 655 ; Castlereagh's Correspondence, 
vol. iv., p. 320. 

(«) See Mason's « History of St Patrick's Cathedral,'* p. 26, note c. 

(*) OVHanlon*s " Lives of the Irish Saints," vol. iii., pp. 283-285 ; vol. viii., pp. 
99-102 ; Annals ot the Four Masters ; Archdall's " Monasticon Hibernicmn," 
p. 181. 



122 PAR18B. OF CLONDALKIK. 

The church of Clondalkin was held, as mentioned under Kilma- 
huddrick, in 1186 by Master Osbertus, and at the time of the 
establishment of the collegiate church of St. Patrick as a 
cathedral, formed a prebend in that church. It was then held by 
William FitzGuido, who was appointed the first dean, and became 
portion of the corps attached to that dignity, the churches of 
Rathcoole and Esker being subservient to it (i). In 1324 Reginald 
of Clondalkin is mentioned as the chaplain, and in 1393 James 
Seman is described as rector (2). The mediaeval church contained 
three altars dedicated respectively to the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
St. Bridget and St. Thomas, and was evidently a well-endowed 
foundation. Of this some indication is given in the will of William 
Neill, which has been already quoted. He left legacies to two 
priests, described respectively as the chaplain of the parish and St. 
Mary's chaplain, a chalice of sixteen ounces, which had cost five 
and a half marks, to the altar of St. Mary, and sums of money 
for the purpose of maintaining a priest for a year, of purchasing 
a service or lesson book, and of keeping lights on the altars of St. 
Bridget and St. Thomas. The other parishioners at that period 
also remembered the church in their wills (3). 

At the time of the dissolution of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 
1547 the church of Clondalkin was stated to be in charge of a 
curate who was assigned the altarages and a messuage near the 
church as his salary, and Christopher Brown, who subsequently 
appears at Tallaght, is mentioned as the chaplain (4). The regal 
visitation of 1615 states that the church was then in good repair, 
but the vicar, Richard Bathe, had been deprived on account of 
his not residing, and the vicarage was sequestrated. Some years 
later Archbishop Bulkeley found Mr. Joseph Ware, *' a master 
of arts and preacher," installed as vicar and diligently discharging 
the duty at a salary of £20 a year. The church, in the opinion 
of the Archbishop, was only "indifferently" repaired. Later on 
the Rev. Thomas Wilkinson succeeded Ware and was in possession 
when the Commonwealth was established (5). 



(1) " Credte Mihi," edited by Sir John Gilbert, p. 137 ; Mason's « History of St. 
Patrick^s Cathedral/' p. 26. 

(2 ) Liber Niger, p. 755 ; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Elizabeth, J^o. 97. 

(3) Berry's Register of Wills, 1457-1483, pp. 56, 94, 112, 163, 209. 

(4) Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 29 ; Christ Church Deed, 
No. 1220. 

(5^ Regal Visitation of 1615 ; Archbishop Bulkeley's Report, p. 153 ; Visitation 
Book. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 123 

The mediaeval church then fell into ruins, and at the close of 
the seventeenth century the parish was united to that of Tallaght. 
At the beginning of the eighteenth century a portion of the 
mediaeval church was however restored, as shown in the drawing by 
Archdeacon, and it was served during that century by the 
prebendaries of Kilmactalway ; in 1701 the Rev. Hugh Wilson, in 
1727 the Rev. Francis Wilson, in 1743 the Rev. Sir Philip Hoby, 
Bart. (1), with as curate the Rev. Richard Bailey, in 1748 the 
Rev. William Ussher, in 1752 the Rev. William Pountney, in 
1771 the Rev. John Drury with as curate the Rev. George Wogan, 
and in 1791 the Rev. Charles Mosse. On his visit to Clondalkin 
in 1780 Austin Cooper describes the church as small and neat and 
says it contained twelve seats. Opposite the entrance there stood 
the communion table, and in the centre of the church, on the left- 
hand side, the reading desk and pulpit. Under the communion 
table there was a tombstone to the memory of the " Rev. Dr. 
Francis Wilson," and on the wall opposite the pulpit a mural 
tablet, which is in the present church, to the memory of Sir Simon 
Bradstreet, Bart. (2). The church was surrounded by walls, and 
Cooper saw in the churchyard the two crosses and a stone font 
which are still there, as well as two tombstones with inscrip- 
tions (3). 

According to a parliamentary paper the Roman Catholic Church 
had in 1731 a chapel in Clondalkin village as well as three chapels 
in private houses in the parish, and these are stated to have been 
served by three priests (4). This statement was, however, probably 
not well founded, and as we have seen under Lucan, Clondalkin 
parish under the Roman Catholic arrangement was then united to 
Lucan and has since so remained except for a brief period from 1770 
to 1800. With the exception of the names of the parish priests in 
charge during that period, from 1770 to 1778 the Rev. C. Coleman, 
and from 1778 to 1800 the Rev. Thomas Maguire, the names of 
the parish priests will be found under Lucan. 



0) See Hughes' " History of St. Werburgh's, Dublin," p. 66 ; and Gilbert's 
" History of Dublin," vol. ii., p. 33. 

(*) Cooper describes it as " a small white marble monument, ornamented with 
pillars," and says there is inscribed on it a coat of arms and the following inscrip- 
tion : — " In the aisle near this marble is the burial-place of Sir Simon Bradstreet of 
Eilmainham, in the County of Dublin, Baronet, counsellor-at-law. A.D. 
MDCCLXI." 

(') One to Richard Mathews, who died 18th Oct., 1779, aged 75 ; and the other 
to Michael Connor, of Dublin, shoemaker, who died 18th Aug., 1673. 
(*) Parliamentary Papers in Public Record Office. 



124 



PARISH OF CLONDALKIN. 



The church of Clondalkin is stated in 1777 to have been in good 
repair, although of great antiquity, and it is mentioned that land 
belonging to it had then been leased to a tenant on condition that 
he performed all necessary painting, whitewashing, and glazing (i). 
The explosion of the gunpowder mills shook, however, the ancient 
building, and the present church was then erected, at first taking 
the form depicted in the accompanying picture, and causing much 




Clondalkin Church in 1792. 

From a plate in Grose's " Antiquities of Irelanciy 

comment on account of its orientation not being correct. The 
succession of vicars since the Rev. Charles Mosse has been, in 1797 
the Rev. John Grant, in 1815 the Rev. John Reade, in 1848 the 
Rev. David John Reade, in 1873 the Rev. William Winslow Berry, 
in 1890 the Rev. Ronald MacDonnell, in 1892 the Rev. Charles 
James Ferguson, and in 1904 the Rev. James Berkeley Bristow (2). 



(*) Parliamentary Papers in Public Record Office. 

(2) See, for further information as to the parish, Journal of the Association for the 
Preservation of the Memm'ials of the Dead in Ireland,* vol. iii., p. 434 ; vol. iv., 
pp. 32, 225 ; Journal of Uie County Kildure Archceoloffical Society^ vol. v., p. 1 ; and 
Exshaiv^s Magazine for 1776, p. 310. 



DRIMNAGH CASTLE. 125 



Parish of Drimnagh 

(i.e., Druimneach or the rldrjed lands). 

» 

This parish consisted in the seventeenth century of the townland of Drimnagh. 

It now contains the town lands of Bluebell, Drimnagh, Jamestown, and Robinhood. 

The objects of antiquarian interest are Drimnagh castle, and a fragment of the 
parish church in the modern cemetery at Bluebell. 



DRIMNAGH CASTLE. 

The castle of Drimnagh stands to the east of the parishes of 
Clondalkin and Ballyfermot, which its lands adjoin, and lies 
about four miles to the south-west of Dublin between the Crumlin- 
road and the highway to the South of Ireland. In its present 
form the castle dates from Jacobean or later times, but the higher 
portion of the building was of much earlier origin, and is one of 
the oldest structures in the County Dublin still inhabited. This 
part of the castle is in itself a complete dwelling furnished with a 
staircase in one of the turrets and with a chimney flue. It is 
pierced with a large gateway which gave entrance to an enclosed 
bawn or courtyard, and was protected by a moat supplied with 
water from a stream called the Bluebell. Its windows were 
originally small and narrow, and those with which it is now 
lighted were doubtless inserted in the seventeenth century when 
the extension on the southern side was added (i). 

Drimnagh Castle was for many centuries one of the principal 
seats of the great Anglo-Norman family of Barnewall, which 
became ennobled in Ireland under the titles of Trimlestown and 
Kingsland, and the owners of its lands can be traced in almost 
unbroken succession from the beginning of the thirteenth century. 



(i) See ** The Lesser Castles of the County Dublin," by E. R. M'C. Dix, in The 
Irish Builder for 1897, p. 49 ; also Brew6r*s " Beauties of Ireland," vol. i., p. 208 ; 
Irish Penny Journal for 1840, p. 337 ; and sketches by G. V. du Noyer in possession 
of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 



126 



PARISH OF DRIMNAGH. 



The founders of the Barnewall family in Ireland are said to have 
arrived in this country at the same time as Strongbow, and to 
have settled in Munster at Berehaven. There we are told they 
were attacked by the original inhabitants, and ruthlessly 
slaughtered. Only one youth escaped, and according to an 
ancient historian, this hero, who had studied law in London, was 
the first of his name to possess Drimnagh. The earliest owner 







mmm'''^^^ '^^f^^m^ 



Drimnagh Castle frcm the front.; 

From a photograph by Mr. T. J. Westropp. 

of Drimnagh, whose name is recorded in the State papers relating 
to Ireland, appears in 1216 in the person of Hugh de Barnewall, 
who, as already mentioned in the history of Terenure, was then 
granted protection for his possessions at Drimnagh and the former 
place. He had, however, been preceded in Ireland by another 
member of his family. Sir Hugh de Barnewall who, in 1209, came 
to this country as a messenger from King John, and in the next 
year accompanied that monarch in his Irish progress. Sir Hugh 
de Barnewairs namesake, the first recorded owner of Drimnagh, 
was sent to Ireland in 1212 at the King's expense, and is subse- 
quently mentioned as giving counsel about grants of land and as 
acting as guardian of the persons and estates of more than one 



DRIMNAGH CASTLE. 127 



ward. His death took place before 1221, and the lands of 
Drimnagh and Terenure after having been for a time in the 
custody of John de Sb. John, came into the possession of Hugh's 
brother, Reginald, as his next-of-kin. 

At the time of Hugh de Barnewairs death Reginald Barnewall 
appears to have been in England, and it is not until 1223 that 
we find him in Ireland, where he had come on the King's service 
to defend Anglo-Norman rule. Afterwards we find him released 
from military duties in England, and given many marks of Royal 
favour in the form of grants of money from the Irish Exchequer. 
He was probably succeeded at Drimnagh by another owner of the 
same name, and later on it came into possession of Wolfran de 
Barnewall, who has been already referred to as one of the defenders 
in 1277 of Saggart, and as donor of a rent-charge on the lands 
of Terenure to the Leper Hospital of St. Laurence near Palmers- 
ton. Wolfran de Barnewall was for a time Constable of Dublin 
Castle and Sheriff of Dublin County, and in the latter capacity 
had the duty imposed upon. him of conveying an important prisoner 
to Edward I., while that monarch was in Wales. He died before 
the close of that century, leaving by his wife Johanna a son, 
Reginald. The latter greatly distinguished himself in the Scottish 
wars of his time, in which, we are told, he served manfully (i). 
As we have seen in the history of Bally fermot, in 1316 he arranged 
a marriage between his son, another Wolfran de Barnewall, and 
Nichola, daughter of Robert de Clahull, then the owner of that 
place, and thus secured for his descendants not only the greater 
portion of the lands in Ballyfermot parish, but also large posses- 
sions in the northern part of the County Dublin. Wolfran 
Barnewall was succeeded in his turn by his son, Reginald 
Barnewall, and the latter at the time of his death, which took 
place before 1395, was owner, in addition to Drimnagh and 
Terenure, of Ballyfermot and of various lands in Fingal, including 
those of Bremore, Balrothery, and Balbriggan. By his wife, 
Katherine Bellew, Reginald Barnewall left a son, Wolfran, who 
in 1435 vested his lands and other property, including three 
houses, two mills, and a dovecot, in the hands of a trustee, Luke 



(^) Holinshed's ** Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland,*' vol. vi., p. 55 ; 
Sweetman's Calendar, 1171-1307, passim. Several writers of fiction have taken the 
inhabitants of Drimnagh Castle at this period as their subject — see "Marion of 
Drymnagh," by Matthew Weld Hartstonge, London, 1814 ; "The Bridal of Drimna," 
by John Christopher Fitzachary, Dublin, 1884 ; and " The Rose of Drimnfkgh,'* by 
R. D. Joyce. 



128 PARISH OF DRIMNAGH. 

Barnewall, a clergyman, for the benefit of his sons. Of those he 
had three, John, Reginald, and Wolf ran, and in 1451 the second 
son is described as of Drimnagh, and the eldest, John, as of 
Bally fermot. But in 1460, when he was sheriff of the county, 
John Barnewall was living at Drimnagh, as he was also at the 
time of his death. This occurred before 1482, when he was 
succeeded by his son Robert, who married Elizabeth Burnell (^). 

Drimnagh Castle was then one of the principal castles in the 
metropolitan county, with a mill and mill-race which were 
accounted important possessions. Its owner took high rank 
amongst the landed proprietors of the county, and when he died 
in 1535, Robert Barnewall owned no less than three manors, 
Drimnagh and Balrothcry in the County Dublin, and Ardee in 
the County Louth. His propert)y descended to his son, Edward, 
who was, however, little more than an infant, and during 
Edward's long minority Drimnagh Castle was occupied by James 
Bathe, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who married Robert 
Barnewairs widow. The Chief Baron appears to have 
made Drimnagh his principal residence until his stepson 
came of age, when he removed to the seat of his own family 
at Drumcondra. It was in 1553 that Edward Barnewall obtained 
livery of his estate. A few years later we find him taking part 
in person as well as contributing a mounted archer and carts in 
the military expeditions to Ulster, and subsequently acting as 
one of the Commissioners of the Muster. He married a kins- 
woman, Elizabeth, daughter of Patrick Barnewall, of Grace Dieu, 
and left on his death, in 1590, two sons, Marcus and Peter. The 
former succeeded to Drimnagh and the latter to Terenure where, 
as we have seen, ho was living in 1641 when the rebellion broke 
out (2). 

Not long after succeeding to Drimnagh Castle, Marcus Barne- 
wall, who was twenty-eight years old at the time of his father's 
death, and had married, like him, a kinswoman, a sister of Robert 
Barnewall, of Dunbro, took steps to break the entail on the male 
line, under which the estate was held, as his only child was a 
daughter. In legal proceedings which arose after his death we 

(1) Plea Rolls and Memoranda Rolls; Patent Roll, pp. 148, 211, 257, 266; 
Exchequer Inquisitons, Co. Dublin, James I.. Nos. 44, 64. 

(2) Exchequer Inquisitions, Co. Dublin, Henry VIII., Nos. 80, 136, 199 ; Fiants, 
Henry VIII., Edward VI., Philip and Mary, passim ; Haliday Manuscripts, passim^ 
published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; Mouck Mason's Collection in 
British Museum, Egerton, 1773, f. 98 ; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Elizabeth, 
No. 198 ; " Description of Ireland in 1598," edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, p. 37. 



DRIMNAGH CASTLE. 



129 



obtain some information as to the events of his life, and find that 
he served, in 1597, in the expedition against the Earl of Tyrone, 
on which the Lord Deputy of that time, Lord Burgh, died. 
There are also references to the appointment of various trustees, 
and a long account of his recovering the estate on one occasion 
from some of them. We are told how he proceeded to a place 
then called Goodman's Hill, near his castle, and had sods 
cut there, and on the lands of Bally fermot, and how after these 
had been given to him with sundry deeds, he returned to the 
castle with much satisfaction .^ 



to hirrii^elf, Haying iliat ho 
was now Maruus Barnowall 
of Drimnagh once more. 
He died in 1606, and pro- 
longed litigation ensued be- 
tween hia daughter J Eliza- 
beth, who had married a 
kinsman, James Barnewall, 
of Brcmore, aiul her uncle, 

1^. 



::^f 





' 1 










Drimnash Castle from the back. 

Peter Barnewall, of Terenure. For a long time Peter Barne- 
wall, who was a man of importance in the county, and was re- 
turned in 1634 as one of its representatives in Parliament, kept 
men near Drimnagh trying to gain entrance on the lands for 
him, but he was not successful, and failed to make good his 
claim to his brother's estate (}). 

(^) Patent Rolls, James I., pp. 75, 105, 111, 327 ; Calendar of ;;Iri8h State Papers, 
1611-1614, p. 384 ; Will of Marcus Barnewall ; Return of Members of Parliament. 



130 PARISH OF DRIMNAGH. 



The castle of Drimnagh, with its lands, was then in possession 
of Sir Adam Loftus, afterwards appointed Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, and created a peer as Viscount Loftus of Ely, to whom 
it had been leased by Marcus Barnewall before his death. Sir 
Adam L()ftus was a nephew of the famous Archbishop Loftus, the 
builder of Rathfarnham Castle, and it was probably the proximity 
of Rathfarnham to Drimnagh that led to his settling at the latter 
place. Tie had been given by his uncle, in his dual capacity of 
Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the Arch- 
deaconry of Gleadalough, for which he had qualified by taking 
holy orders, and a Mastership in Chancery, and also became 
\''icar-General of the Dublin diocese and Judge of the Marshal 
Court. In these places he enjoyed the confidence of Archbishop 
Jones, his uncle's successor in both his great offices, and of the 
Lord Deputies of that time. Lord Mount joy, by whom he was 
knighted, and Sir Arthur Chichester, by whom he was called to the 
Privy Council board. In the early part of his tenure Drimnagh 
Castle was doubtless much occupied by Sir Adam Loftus, who, 
according to Peter Barnewall, injured the place by cutting down 
a wood and other great timber; bat subsequently Sir Adam Loftus 
acquired Monasterevan Abbey, now the seat of his descendant, 
the Earl of Drogheda, and after his appointment in 1619 as 
Chancellor, Drimnagh appears to have seen little of him. 

In the great family cause which led to Lord Chancellor Loftus' 
fall under the imperious Earl of Strafford, Drimnagh is mentioned 
as part of the provision for his eldest son. Sir Robert Loftus, 
but the latter died in 1640, and by whom the castle was occupied 
during the troublous times that ensued does not appear (i). We 
find Sir William Parsons writing to Ormonde, when the latter 
was returning in February, 1642, from his expedition to Newcastle 
Lyons and Naas, to beware of the dangerous pass at Drimnagh, 
and Ormonde, some years later, when encamped at Rathmines, 
before his disastrous battle with the army of the Parliament, 
thought of moving his headquarters to Drimnagh, and entrenching 
himself there (2). During the Commonwealth the castle of 
Drimnagh, which was described then as an old castle made 



( 1-) *' Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxxiv., p. 77 ; Metcalfe's " Book of 
Knights,'* p. 212 ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1599-1600, p. 421 ; '* Additional 
Manuscripts of Sir Thomas Barrett-Lennard, Bart.," published by Historical 
Manuscripts Commission. 

(*) Carte Papers, vol. ii., f. 330 ; Carte's "Life of Ormonde, * vol. iii., p. 466. 



DRIMNAGH CASTLE. 131 



habitable, came into the possession of Philip Ferneley, Clerk of 
the Irish House of Commons, and a lieutenant-colonel in the 
army, who had married Lord Chancellor Loftus* eldest daughter. 
Lattice . With the castle Ferneley and his wife were sold the 
contents, which were valued by the sheriff and *' by good and 
lawful men of his bailiwick " as worth just ninety pounds. More 
than half that amount was assessed as the value of nineteen 
feather beds, many of them said to be old and broken, and of 
sundry bolsters, pillows, quilts, and covers, one of these last being 
cf velvet, and another of laced plush 3 while amongst the other 
items the principal are five pieces of old tapestry and six Arras 
hangings on the walls, three Turkey carpets, a brass grate, and 
a black velvet saddle and leather coach curtains (i). 

About the time of the Restoration, Drimnagh Castle is believed 
to have afforded shelter to Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Walker, 
who is said to have been on the scaffold, with his face concealed 
iu a vizor, when Charles I. was beheaded. In the Hearth Money 
Roll for 1664, when the castle was rated as containing three 
chimneys, the name of the occupant is blank, but in one for 
1667, when the castle was rated as containing six hearths, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Ferneley is stated to have been the 
occupant. Before his death, which took place in 1677, the lease 
under which Ferneley held the castle expired, and the castle and 
lands reverted to the Barnewalls of Bremore (2). Their male line 
became extinct early in the eighteenth century, and the Drimnagh 
and Bremore estates were sold in 1727 by Walter Bagenal, who 
married the heiress of the house of Bremore, to Henry Earl of 
Shelburne, whose representative, the Marquis of Lansdowne, is 
now lord of the soil. Amongst the denominations of the Drimnagh 
lands at that time we find the Hales, the White House, the Blue 
Bell, the Chapel field and Red Lion, the Mill Hill, Santry Hill, 
Robin Hood, Portlester, Knockangorlagh, and the Slip (3). 

Early in the eighteenth century a wood near the castle 
known as Drimnagh Wood was in possession of the Honourable 



(i) Down Survey Map ; Exchequer Decree, Cromwell, 1658, Ni». 98 ; The Irish 
Builder for 1896, p. 8 ; Chancery Decree, Cromwell, 1654, No. 211. 

(«) Journal, R.8, A J,, vol. xxix., \\ 96; Hearth Mon«y and Subsidy Rolls; 
Will of Philip Ferneley. 

(') Chancery Decree. 

k2 



132 PARISH OF DRIMNAGH. 



Godfrey Boate, a justice of the King's Bench, who has been 
immortalised by Dean Swift, and in his will Boate desires no 
less than eight thousand trees to be cut in it. The castle was 
then occupied by a family called Archer, and there in 1735 died 
Mr. Arthur Archer, whose widow substituted an earlier will for 
his real one, as was discovered two years later, on her own death. 
The lands of Robin Hood appear to have been at that time the 
site of a well knowm house of entertainment. In some contem- 
poraneous verses its rounds of beef and the beverages with which 
they were accompanied are extrolled, and an invitation is given 
to join a club of archers, who then met and dined at Robin Hood. 
A reference to the castle is made in 1761 by a French tourist, who 
remarks that it is built in the style of some of the castles in his 
own country, and it was visited in 1780 by Austin Cooper, who 
mentions its narrow stairs, its thick walls, and irregular wains- 
cotted rooms, particularly a small dark room near the gateway, 
with a large staple and enormous ring in the wall. The castle 
was then occupied by a Mr. Reilly, who had built a permanent 
bridge over the moat, and who told Cooper that the entrance with 
steps was built by a Mr. Ennis, grandfather of the owner before 
him (1). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The remains of the parish church of Drimnagh lie on the 
opposite side of the Naas road to the castle, and are now enclosed 
in a large graveyard. The church was a small oratory of late 
date, measuring inside twenty-seven feet two inches by fourteen 
feet nine inches. The south-east angle, the western half of the 
north wall, and the west end, are standing. The portions first 
mentioned are covered thickly with ivy. The west end is of 
unusual height for the proportions of the church. It has a rudely 
arched pointed doorway with a slight*! y curved rough arch inside. 



(i) Wills of Hon. Godfrey Boate and Arthur and Hannah Archer ; Poems by 
John Winstanley (Dublin, 1742), pp. 210, 211 ; Cooper's Note Book; The Repository, 
Dublin, 1763, p. 65. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



133 



The keystones are of the almost triangular shape found in buildings 
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. High over the door is 
an oblong window of the plainest description, with dressed jambs 
and a steep sill, the uneven arch nearly flat and with a wedge- 
shaped keystone. From the existence of a corbel it is possible 
that there was originally a gallery at the west end of the church. 



^^'^ 


- ■•■■ _ . ■ . . ■ - .,j 


li 


mm- 


^^' 



Driiiina8:h Church. 

From a photograjth by Mr. T. J. Westro'p'p, 

Of the history of the church nothing is known, but it appears 
to have been in use in 1547 at the time of the dissolution of St. 
Patrick's Cathedral, as the altarages are returned then as worth 
thirteen shillings and sixpence, (i). 



(i) Mason's ** History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 29. 



134 PARISH OP CRUMLIN. 



Parish of Crumlin 

(i.e.f Cruimghlinn w the curved glen). 



This parish contained in the seventeenth century the townlands of Commons, 
Crumlin, and Petty Canons. 

It now contains the townlands of Commons, Crumlin, Qreenhills, Eimmage, 
Larkfield, Limekilnfarm, Perrystown. Roebuck. Stannaway (i.e., the stone- 
way), Tonguefield, Whitehall, and Wilkinstown. 

The objects of antiquarian interest are the tower of the parish church, and a 
house of the Queen Anne period in the village. 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 

The parish of Crumlin, of which the village called by that name 
is the centre, has for its boundaries on the west the parishes of 
Drimnagh and Clondalkin, and on the south and east the parishes 
of Tallaght and Rathfarnham. It comprises lands which formed 
in past ages one of the four royal manors near Dublin, and is 
intersected by a road which formerly was the direct route to 
Tallaght and Blessington. At a place within its limits, known as 
the Greenhills, many cists or sepulchres of prehistoric times have 
been discovered, and one of these is now to be seen in the National 
Museum of Ireland, where it is displayed in its original state 
with the urns and bones found in it (}). But of the dwellings 
of the inhabitants of the royal manor no trace remains, and it is 
probable that a castle of importance never stood upon the lands. 
For the lands within Crumlin manor, like those in the other 
three royal manors, Saggart, Newcastle Lyons, and Esker, already 
noticed in this history, do not appear to have numbered amongst 
their occupants any family of high position until the seventeenth 
century, and the earliest house now standing in Crumlin is one 
which was probably built at the beginning of the next century. 



( ^) See a Paper on a Ci.st and Urns found at the Greenhills by Lieutenant-Colonel 
G. T. Plunkett, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy^ Ser 3, vol. v., p. 338. 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 



135 




R ft; 



li 



136 1>ARISH OF CRUMLIN. 



In an Irish poem entitled ** The Battle of Gabrha," Crumlin is 
mentioned as the residence in his old age of the Fenian hero 
Ossian, wlio has been referred to in connection with the valley 
of Glenasmole in Tallaght parish, but Crumlin is a name which 
occurs frequently in the local nomenclature of Ireland, and 
whether the reference is to Crumlin near Dublin or elsewhere is 
doubtful. The poem has been published in the Transactions of 
the Ossianic Society, and the editor gives the meaning of Crumlin 
as the lake of Crom, a pagan deity who received the thank- 
offerings of the husbandmen) for the fruits of the earth Q-), but 
the curved glen is now generally accepted as the meaning of the 
name. The earliest reference to Crumlia after the Anglo-Norman 
Conquest shows that the lands were held for a time after that 
event by a family which came from Harptree in Somerset- 
shire, but before the close of King John's reign they had been 
constituted a royal manor. In this manor the system of tenure 
was different from that on the other royal manors, as the tenants 
themselves took the place of a middleman and held the demesne 
lands in addition to their own farms. According to Holinshed 
the Crumlin tenants were an unwashed and turbulent crowd, or, 
in his own words, ** a lobbish and desperat clobberiousnesse," 
and had to pay a higher rent than the tenants on the other manors 
owing to their having murdered one of the King's seneschals (2). 

Towards the close of the thirteenth century Edward I. decided 
to lease the manor of Crumlin to Henry de Compton, an eccle- 
siastic who has been already noticed, as lessee of the profits of 
the manor courts in Saggart and Newcastle Lyons, and who had 
rendered valuable service to the Crown in the Irish Chancery. 
As in the other manoirs, Compton met in Crumlin with con- 
siderable opposition, and finally, after more than one inquiry had 
been held, the King thought it more prudent to leave the manor 
in the possession of '* his poor men of Crumlin." Amongst those 
foremost in the dispute we find, in addition to the officials, 
Richard the Provost and Philip the clerk; Thomas of CrumHn, 
Thomas le Reves, John Russell, and John le Monte, who repre- 
sented the principal Crumlin families of that time. The family 
which took its cognomen from the place was known outside the 



i}-") Transactions of the Ossianic Society y vol. i., p. 105. 

(«) Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 73 ; Holinshed's Chronicles, 
vol. vi., p. 29. 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 137 

manor, and one of its members, Adam de Crumlin, served as 
sheriff of the metropolitan county (i). During the thirteenth 
century, as stated in the history of Templeogue, the old city 
water-course, which flows by Crumlin parish, was constructed. 
From it the townland of Tonguofield derives its name. After 
leaving Templeogue the course joined at a point near Kimmage 
the River Poddle, and their waters flowed together in the bed of 
the Poddle until they reached a point which has become known 
as the Tongue in Crumlin parish. Here they divided again, 
portion following the original line of ihe Poddle through Harold's 
Cross, and the remainder being diverted in an artificial course to 
Dolphin's Barn and thence to James' Street in Dublin (2). 

Crumlin was then known as Crum or Trum, and the 
similarity of the latter name to that of Trim gave rise in the 
early part of the fourteenth century to a dispute between the 
Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of Meath as to the right of 
presentation to the church of Trim. It has also caused a mistake 
in regard to a terrible tragedy which was enacted at that time 
near Crumlin, but which has been erroneously supposed to have 
occurred near Trim. This tragedy was the slaughter by the 
O'Tooles after thedr raid on Tallaght, in 1331, of a number of the 
leading inhabitants of the neighbourhood, including one of the 
Brets of Rathfarnham and two of the Barnewalls of Drimnagh, 
who had followed them, and were led into an ambuscade at a 
place then known as the Culiagh, not far from Crumlin (3). 
Some years before that time steps had been taken by the Crown 
to erect a castle at Crumlin for the protection of the inhabitants. 
These appear to have been largely Anglo-Norman settlers, and 
from them the Crumlin lands had obtained extremely curious and 
interesting place names. Amongst these may be mentioned the 
grene, the croseynde, the pobel, the moredych, the knocwey 
in the sledan, the quilagh grene, the fryth or coppice wood, the 
langlye, the conyngere, the yoghlyhegeswey, caddelscornel, 
nicholesherneslye, howletesplot, the stockyngs, the pykesley, the 
holwcroftfelde, willetesplot, the gillyneshill, and the halkey. 

(^) Sweetman's Calendar, 1285-1292, No. 855, et passim. 

(8) " The Water Supply of Ancient Dublin," Henry F. Berry, in Journal R.S.A.I., 
vol. xxi., p. 557. 

(8) Mason's "History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 73 ; Calendar of Carew State 
Papers, Book of Howth, p. 157 ; Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. ii., p. 374. 



138 PARISH OP CRUMLIN. 



During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Abbey of 
St. Thomas, the Priory of the Holy Trinity and the Guild of St. 
Anne in St. Audoen's Church, appear as owners of property at 
Cruralin, and amongst the local families there occur the names 
of Stephens, Whitbred, Gallane, Stafford, Hay, Arthur, and Says. 
At that time the townland of Stannaway, or Stonway as it was 
then called, which is now included in Crumlin parish, was in the 
manor of St. Sepulchre, and was held under the Archbishop of 
Dublin in 1382 by William Moenes, then the owner of Rathmines. 
During the latter part of the j&fteenth century an important local 
person is mentioned in Robert Walsh, who is styled an aquebagelus 
or parish clerk ; and Joan Drywer, who has been already referred 
to as leaving a legacy to Aderrig Church, is a resident deserving 
of notice. She was engaged in extensive agricultural operations, 
and the valuation of her goods at the time of her death is very 
instructive as to the cost of household goods and live stock in her 
time. For instance, a goblet and small cup of maple wood are 
valued at sixteen shillings and eightpence, while her four cart 
horses were only thought worth a pound (i). 

The fees paid to several Government officials, including the 
Serjeant of arms and the chief chamberlain of the Exchequer were, 
in the sixteenth century, drawn from the issues of the manor of 
Crumlin ; and from the court book used at the close of that century 
it appears that the greater portion of the lands continued to be 
held under the Crown by small farmers. But several religious 
houses were in possession of property at Crumlin at the time of 
their dissolution. Besides the Abbey of St. Thomas, the Priory 
of the Holy Trinity, and the Guild of St. Anne, which have been 
already mentioned, we find the Convent of St. Mary de Hogges, 
the Cathedral of St. Patrick, and the Abbey of St. Mary 
described as owners of land there. Their holdings were afterwards 
known under various names, including Cromwell's land, Mas- 
tocke's land, Giffard's grove and Kevin's farm. At the time of 
his attainder Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, was in possession 
of some lands at Crumlin which were then forfeited to the Crown, 



(1) Memoranda Roll ; Register of St. Thomas the Martyr, and Deeds of St 
Anne*s Guild, i)reserved in the Royal Irish Academy ; Christ Church Deeds, jxtssim ; 
" Notice of the Manor of St. Sepulchre," by James Mills, in Journal R.S.A.I.f vol. 
xix., pp. 123, 126 ; Berry's "Register of Wills," 1457-1483, p. 149. 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 139 



and we find subsequently Chief Baron Bathe and his descendants, 
and the families of Sutton and Talbot, holding these as well as 
the monastic lands, under the Crown (i). 

At that period there were several small castle houses in or 
near the village of Crumlin, but these afforded no protection to 
the village when, in December, 1594, Gerald FitzGerald, the 
brother of Walter Reagh, one of the chief Irish leaders of that 
time, descended upon it with some eighty followers. The raid was 
made in the night, and the whole village was plundered and 
burned before assistance came from Dublin, although Crumlin lay 
" almost at its gate," and the Lord Deputy, Sir William Russell, 
on seeing the flames himself hastened away a troop of horse. The 
assailants escaped without ** wound or bloodshed," and were so 
encouraged by the success of their enterprise that as soon as the 
village began to be rebuilt they descended upon it again, and 
burned a great portion of the new buildings (2). 

At the close of the sixteenth century the Purcell family, which 
was seated near the village until the last century, is first men- 
tioned as resident at Crumlin, and in 1609 Edmund Purcell was 
leased land then belonging to the church. About the latter time 
John Brice, who was mayor of Dublin in 1605, was connected with 
Crumlin, and also a family called Brerefcon is mentioned as living 
there. But the most important resident in the first part of the 
sevent€enth century was Sir Patrick Fox, sometime Clerk of the 
Council, who then acquired much property in Crumlin and 
occupied what was known as the manor house. His widow and 
family were in possession of the house at the time of the Rebellion, 
and according to a deposition made by Captain Thomas Harley, 
who was a contractor for the supply of transport to the army and 
who had a house and farm in Crumlin, were party to the spoiling 
of the possessions of persons like himself (3). 



(1) Fiants Henry VIIL, Edward VI., and Klizskhethy passim ; Court Book of Esker 
and Crumlin in Marsh's Library ; Christ Church Deeds, passim ; Mason's ** History 
of St. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 79, 85, 95 ; Patent Rolls, James I., p. 115 ; Exchequer 
Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Hen. VIII., No. 75. 

(«) Calendar of Carew State Papers, 1589-1599, p. 226, and of Irish State Papers, 
1598-1599, p. 461 ; Annals of the Four Masters under 1595, 

(^) *' Description of Ireland in 1598," edited by Rev. Edmund Hogan, p. 37 ; 
Mason's "History of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 85 ; Exchequer Inquisition, Co. 
Dublin, Jas. I., Xo. 128 ; Survey of Newcastle and Uppercross ; Patent Rolls, 
Jas. I., pp. 15, 115, 135, 153, 155, i93, 306 ; Depositions of 1641. 



140 PARISH OF CRUMLIN. 



A branch of the Ussher family had also settled at Crumlin, and 
during the reign of James I. Robert Ussher, whose sister married 
Lamerick Nottingham of Ballyowen in Esker parish, was living 
there. He was engaged in the wine trade in Dublin, and 
married a daughter of Alderman Nicholas Ball, who represented 
Dublin in parliament in Queen Elizabeth's reign. His eldest son, 
Robert Ussher the younger, was granted in 1646 a license to hold 
two fairs annually at Crumlin, and a few years later the children 
of the latter, Arlander and Mary, appear as the occupants of a 
house in the village. During the Commonwealth period the manor 
house and lands, which had been forfeited by the Fox family, 
and other lands, including those which had belonged to John 
Brice, were granted to Captain John Blackwell, already men- 
tioned as owner at that time of Terenure. But the other 
inhabitants of Crumlin appear not to have been disturbed, and 
after the Restoration we find two houses rated as containing four 
hearths each, occupied respectively by Arlander Ussher and Peter 
Holmes, who had married a grand-aunt of Ussher's, and two 
houses rated as containing two hearths each, occupied respectively 
by Ignatius Purcell and Patrick Brereton (i). 

The greater portion of the Crumlin lands came, in the latter 
half of the seventeenth century, into the possession of Major 
Joseph Deane, who has been already mentioned as the owner 
of Terenure at that time. As stated in the history of Terenure, 
Major Deane, although identified with Commonwealth principles 
as brother of one of the regicides and an officer in Cromwell's 
army, rose under monarchal rule to a high position in this country 
and sat in the Restoration parliament as member for the borough 
of Inistiogue in the County Kilkenny, where he owned property 
and a residence. He was prominent in the political movements 
cf his time. In 1682 he was in correspondence with the Duke of 
Ormonde as to schemes for collecting the Irish revenue, and in 
1694, although then not in parliament, he was consulted by some 
of its most influential members on the great question of that day, 
the powers of the Irish parliament with respect to money bills. 
He appears to have lived constantly at Crumlin and probably 
occupied the manor house in which Sir Patrick Fox had resided. 



(-1) Ball Wright's " Memoirs of the Ussher Family, pp. 24-27 ; Carte Papers, 
vol. clxiv., f. 241 ; Crown Rental for 1658 ; Survey of Newcastle and Uppercross ; 
Census of 1659 ; Hearth Money Rolls. 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 141 

The chief historical event, in which Crumlin was concerned, 
occurred in his time, the encampment there for two days after the 
Battle of the Boyne of King William and his victorious army. A 
brief memorandum of the King's progress tells us that on July 5, 
1690, the army arrived at Finglas, that on July 6 the King went 
thence to church in Dublin, and that on July 9 the army marched 
to Crumlin whence, two days later, it proceeded to Castlemartin on 
its way to the south of Ireland (i). Major Deane was twice 
married. By his first wife he had a son Joseph, who married a 
daughter of Dr. John Parker, Archbishop of Dublin, and died 
before his father; and by his second wife, a daughter of Maurice 
Cuffe of the Desart family, he had a son Edward. On his death in 
1699 Major Deane was succeeded at Crumlin by his son Joseph's 
only son, who bore the same Christian name, and at Terenure, as 
already stated, by his son Edward (2). 

The Right Hon. Joseph Deane, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 
as Major Deane's grandson became, was the builder of 
the red brick house, which still adorns Crumlin village, and used 
it as his country residence. He was not long called to the bar 
before his grandfather's death, but a few years after it gained 
distinction as member for the County Dublin. To that position 
he was called in 1703 at the general election on the accession of 
Queen Anne, and he continued to occupy it until 1714, when on 
the accession of George I. he was raised to the bench as Chief 
Baron. His judicial honours were only enjoyed for a brief space, 
as in less than a year, in May, 1715, his death took place. His 
illness was attributed by Archbishop King to a chill contracted 
during a total eclipse of the sun. This eclipse was attended with 
great cold and dew, and the Chief Baron was returning on horse- 
back at the time from circuit, and was thus much exposed to the 
weather. The Chief Baron's wife was a granddaughter of the 
first Earl of Orrery and a sister of Speaker Henry Boyle, who was 



(1) Burtchaell's " Members of Kilkenny," p. 59 ; Carte Papers under year 1682 ; 
" Manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu/' p. 181, published by Historical 
Manuscripts Commission ; " Rawdon Papers," edited by Rev. Edward Berwick, 
p. 380 ; Southwell Papers in Trinity College Library MS., 1180. 

(') A tombstone at Crumlin bore the following inscription : — " Jos. fil sec Jos 
et Ann Deane nat ap' Ravensthorp in com Northamp 6 die Jan 1648, et nup Eliz 
fil Joh Parker, Archep Dublin, et obiit ap' Dub decimo octa vicissimo die ejusd 
mensis. Ferendo non Finendo. Eliza filia Mau Cuffe ar nata ap' Quin in com Clare, 

1 Aug. 1625, nup Jos Deane ar 8 Feb., 1652, Jos fil Edw et Ann 

Deane ar nat ap' Pinnock in com Gloc. 2 die Feb. 1623, obiit 24 Decembris, 1699" ; 
Cooper's Note Book. 



142 



PARISH OF CRUMLIN. 







5^ 



i . 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 143 

raised to the peerage as Earl of Shannon. Their only son, who 
was born after the Chief Baron's death, died when an infant, 
and the Chief Baron's property descended to his five daughters. 
They made great marriages, and amongst the Chief Baron's sons- 
in-law were the Earl of Mayo, the Lord Doneraile, the Lord Lisle, 
and the Lord Dungannon of that time (i). 

About ten years after the Chief Baron's death his house at 
Crumlin was advertised for sale. It is described as a handsome 
new-fashioned residence, and was surrounded by walled gardens in 
which there were fish ponds (2). Apparently it was not disposed 
of at that time, and was subsequently occupied under the Chief 
Baron's representatives by the Hon. Richard Allen, the third son 
of the first Viscount Allen of Stillorgan and father of the third 
and fourth peers of that title. The Hon. Richard Allen, who 
was a captain in the army, inherited his father's Kildare estate 
and represented that county in the Irish parliament, of which 
he and his brothers were well-known members. Their capacity for 
parliamentary business does not seem from contemporary refer- 
ences to them to have been great, but in the announcement of his 
death, which occurred at Crumlin in 1745, it is stated that the 
Hon. Richard Allen was a sincere friend to the interests of true 
liberty and his country as well as a gentleman of the strictest 
honour, justice and humanity (3). 

The Chief Baron's house was afterwards occupied for a time by 
Philip Walsh, an eminent King's Counsel, who represented the 
claimant in the famous Annesley peerage case, and who died in the 
same year as Captain Allen (*). There died also in that year at 
Crumlin, which seems to have been a fatal one for the inhabitants, 
Theobald Mathew, the grandfather of the first Earl of Llanda/f. 
He is said to have been a *' gentleman of great probity and 
charity," and lie was succeeded by his son Thomas Mathew, of 
whose hospitality at his seat in the County Tipperary an extra- 
ordinary picture has been given (5). Later on the Chief Baron's 
house was for a time a country residence of one of his sons-in-law. 



(^) Mason's " Hi8tx)ry of St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. Ivi. ; Foster's Admissions 
to Gray's Inn ; Lodge's Peerage, voL ii., p. 364. 

(2) Dublin Eveniny Post, Feb. 20-24, 1723-4. 

("») Coxe's "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole," vol. ii., p. 362 ; Cogbill's Letters 
to Southwell, Brit. Mus., MS. 21,122, flf. 91, 97 ; Dublin Journal, No. 1889. 

(4) Dublin Journal, No. 2622 ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1745, p. 484. 

(5) Dublin Journal, No. 1936 ; Fitzpatrick's " Ireland before the Union," 
p. 170. 

/ 



144 



PARISH OF CRUMLIN. 



Lord Lisle, but the latter deserted it for Fort Lisle near Black- 
rock, which has been referred to in the history of Booterstown, 
and the house was then divided into two dwellings, which were 
advertised to be let with a garden and fish pond, fully stocked 
with fish, for each of them (i). 

About the middle of the eighteenth century a French tourist 
describes Crumlin as a small village with a neat church, and 
mentions that the neighbourhood, especially the Greenhills, which 
had formerly been a great resort of highwaymen who took the 
lives as well as the property of their victims, was well inhabited 
by farmers and labourers. Amongst the residents at that time 




A Summer House at Crumlin in 1795. 

From a plate by F. Jukes. 

two centenarians deserve notice. One of them, Andrew Tench, 
who died near Crumlin in 1750, had been a farmer there all his 
life, and the other, John Rider, who died in 1762 at the Green- 
hills, had been a soldier in foreign service and had been at the 
siege of Vienna in 1683. It is also worthy of notice that John 
O'Keeffe the actor passed some portion of his childhood in the 



(^) Slcater'a Public Gazetteer, vol. vi., p. 515 ; Pue^s Occurrences, vol Ixii.. No. 
6363, 



THE VILLAGE OF CRUMLIN. 145 

village. When by order of the Irish parliament in 1766 a religious 
census of Crumlin was taken, the principal Protestant resident 
was George Thwaites, and the principal Roman Catholic John 
Purcell (1). The latter was a descendant of Ignatius Purcell, 
and the deaths of many other members of that family at Crumlin 
are announced during the eighteenth century (2). 

Horse races took place at that time annually on the common of 
Crumlin, but became so intolerable to the inhabitants in 1789 
that an attempt was made to stop them. It was unsuccessful, and 
although tents, which bad been erected for them, were pulled 
down under the direction of a magistrate, who had the assistance 
of '* a strong party of the army," the races continued for several 
days with great satisfaction to the racing fraternity. In the 
following year the inhabitants made another effort to prevent the 
races taking place, on the ground that they were '* productive of 
idleness and disorder and calculated to disturb the peace " (3) . 
In a contemporary guide to Dublin reference is made to the 
great traffic to Blessington and Baltinglass which then passed 
through Crumlin, and it is stated that the village was no longer 
so fashionable as it had been. But it still enjoyed some measure 
of popularity and included amongst its residents Lady Frances 
Holt, a daughter of the first Earl of Aldborough, and the Hon. 
Joseph Lysaght, a son of the first Lord Lisle. During the 
rebellion of 1798 the inhabitants suffered much loss and damage, 
especially Mr. Arthur Orde and Mr. Thomas Jones, who then 
kept a boarding school in Crumlin, and profiting by their experi- 
ence when the rising under Robert Emmet took place in 1803, 
they were foremost in raising a company of infantry, which was 
commanded by Mr. Arthur Orde (*). 

(^) " A Journey through Ireland," in The Repontory for 1763, pp. 64, 65 ; 
Exshaws Magazine for 1750, p. 442, and for 1762, p. 56 ; 0*KeeftVs Recollections of 
his Life, vol. i., p. 135 ; Religious Returns of 1766. 

(*) A tombstone at Crumlin bears the following inscription : — " Ign. Purcell, 
Esqr., his burial place. His first wife Margaret Purcell alias Sweetman, died 13tli 
of June, 1682. His second wife Elenor Purcell alias Plunket died the 6th of 
Jany. 1691. .Not lost but gone before. Ignatius Purcell, Esqr., obt. 3rd of March, 

1791. Died Slst of Deer., 1851. Henrietta Frances O'Neill, daughter of Major 
Bristow, and wife of Ignatius Francis Purcell, Esqr. Also Ignatius Francis Purcell, 
of Cromlyn House, Co. Dublin, Esqr., 14th Agt., 1856, Trusting in the merits of 
Jesus. Here also are deposited the remains of Selina E. Purcell, wife of Jno. F. 
Purcell, who departed this life on the 7th day of October, 1823, in her 22nd year." 
See also Wills of the Purcell family ; and Exsliatvs Magazine for 1756, p. 160, for 
1766, p. 652, for 1774, p. 520. 

(3) Dublin Journal, 2341, 2342 ; Sleater's Dublin Chronicle, 1789-1790, pp. 496, 
504, 512, 1790-1791, p. 501. 

(4) Lewis' "Dublin Guide," p. 114; Parish Registers: Exahaw's Magazine for 

1792, p. 280 ; Lists of Suffering Loyalists in 1798, aucl Yeownnry Establishment in 
1803, in Public Record Office. 



146 



PARISH OF CRUMLIX. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The parish church of Crumlin is a building of the early part of 
the nineteenth century with the exception of the tower at the 
west end, which had an earlier origin. According to inscriptions 
on tablets in the gate piers the exact date of the erection of the 
present church was^ 1817, while the wall, which surrounds it, is 
stated to have been built in 1725 and repaired exactly one hundred 
years afterwards. In the tower there is a handsome doorway, and 




Crumlin Church. 

From a photograph by Mr. T. J. Weatropp. 

above it there is a skull carved in the stonework with a tablet on 
which a text is inscribed. The tower Is two stories in height and 
in one of the small rooms there are some fragments of a tomb- 
stone which is said to have been erected to the memory of a 
waiting woman of Queen Anne (i). 



(J-) See iiiterasting notes oil this parish, and copies of inscriptions in the grave- 
yard by James R. Fowler and Captain George S. Carey, in the Journal of the 
Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland^ vol. ii., 
p. 287 ; vol. iii., p. 262 ; vol. iv., pp. 34, 228, 407, 408. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 147 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, occupies the site 
of one which stood in Crumlin in the twelfth century and bore a 
similar dedication. The advowson was for a time in the possession 
of the Harptree family, and the church was conferred by William 
FitzWilliam FitzJohn of Harptree on Robert his clerk, together 
with the tithe of all timber cut in a wood, which then stood at 
Crumlin, and permission to appropriate sixteen acres near the 
church. But before the close of the twelfth century, in 1193, the 
church of Crumlin was given by King John, then Prince of 
Moreton, to form a prebend in the collegiate church of St. Patrick. 
This prebend was given by the Prince to William Rydal, but 
subsequent presentations were vested in the Archbishop of Dublin. 
At the close of the thirteenth century the church was valued at 
£10, and amongst its chaplains we find, in 1390 John Stakeboll, 
and in 1449 John Holiwod. In the latter part of the fifteenth cen- 
tury Joan Drywer, who has been already referred to, bequeathed 
money for the support of three lights, as well as for gilding 
the chalice, in the church of St. Mary the Virgin of Crumlin, 
and Joan Stephen, the widow of John Mastocke, directed her 
body to be brought ' ' to holy burial in the cemetery of the parish 
church of Crumlin " (i). 

At the time of the dissolution of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 
1547 the Cathedral's possessions at Crumlin were divided between 
the Economy Fund, the Minor Canons, and the Vicars Choral, 
and the church was probably served, as in later times, by some 
member of the Cathedral establishment. During the Irish raid 
on Crundin in 1594 the fabric of the church sujffered great damage 
by fire. It is interesting to notice that the roof was of lead 
which is said to have been carried off by the insurgents for the 
purpose of making bullets. The church had not been rebuilt in 
1615, when the cure was returned as being in charge of the Rev. 
William Cogan, but it was stated to be in good repair in 1630, 
when the cure was served by the Rev. John Hughes. The 
parishioners were then '* for the most part recusants,'' and the 
Rev. John Heath, who held the cure at the time of the rebellion, 
was resident in Dublin (2). 



(^) Mason's " History of St. Patrick's Cathedral " pp. 4, 73 ; Sweetman's 
Calendar, 1302-1307, p. 287 ; Register of St. Thomas the Martyr, preserved in the 
Royal Irish Academy ; Berry's Register of Wills, 1457-83, pp. 150, 160. 

(2) Mason's " History of ^t. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 69, 79, 85, 95 ; Bagwell's 
" Ireland under the Tudors," vol. iii., p. 246 ; Regal Visitation of 1615 ; Archbishop 
Bulkeley's Report, p. 155 ; Carte Papers, vol. xxi., f. 555. 

l2 



148 PARISH OF CRUMLIN. 



At the beginning of the eighteenth century Archbishop King 
stated that Crumlin had been neglected from the time of the 
Reformation, but under his vigorous rule a change soon began. 
In 1707 the Rev. Peter Finell was in charge, and he 
was succeeded in 1708 by the Rev. Thomas Fetherston, 
in 1719 by the Rev. Jchn Bouhereau, with the Rev. Nicholas 
Jones as curate; in 1723 by the Rev. Zachary Norton, after- 
wards Vicar of Tallaght, and in 1726 by the Rev. Roger Ford, 
who had for a time the Rev. William Candler, afterwards 
curate of Rathfarnham, as an assistant (^). Some years after his 
appointment to Crumiin Mr. Ford became prebendary of Tasagart, 
and, as we have seen, held the living of Rathcoole as well as 
Crumlin, He kept a school in Dublin, at which Edmund Malone 
was educated, and so high was his reputation as a preacher that 
he was called by the House of Commons to preach before it (2). 

Under the Roman Catholic Church the parish of Crumlin has 
been always united to that of Rathfarnham excepting during a 
brief period from 1781 to 1800, when it was joined to Clondalkin. 
According to a return presented to the Irish parliament in 1731, 
there was then a Roman Catholic place of worship in Crumlin, 
which had been rebuilt five years before, and according to the 
census of 1766, there was then a clergyman of that Church, 
the Rev. Nicholas Gibbons, resident in the village (3). 

The parish church which preceded the present one is described 
by Austin Cooper, who visited it in 1780, as a very plain building 
containing about a dozen seats. The chancel was approached by 
two steps and the communion table was enclosed by a semi-circular 
rail. Under the latter lay the tomb of the Deane family, and a 
little outside it the tomb of the Purcell family. At the foot of 
the steps on the right hand side was the reading desk with the 
pulpit above it, and on the other side stood a black marble font. 
After the death of the Rev. Roger Ford, which occurred in 1756, 
the Rev. William Ford succeeded to the cure, and the succession 
of incumbents since has been, in 1785 the Rev. Roger Ford, in 
1831 the Rev. James Elliott, and in 1867 the Rev. Humphry 
Davy. 

(}) Archbishop King's Correspondence, vol. iii., p. 143, in Trinity College 
Library ; Visitation Returns. 

(*) Gilbert's " History of Dublin,' vol. iii., p. 262 ; Journal of the Irish House 
of Commons under date Jan. 30, 1752. 

(3) Parliamentary Returns in Public Record Office. 
(■•) Cooper's Note Book ; Visitation Returns* 



HAROLD*S CROSS. 149 



Portions of the Parishes of 

St. Catherine and 

St. Nicholas Without. 



The portions of the parishes lying outside the City of Dublin include the townlands 
of Argos, Cherry Orchard, Haroldacross, Haroldscross West, Mount Jerome, 
Kathland East and West. 



HAROLD^S CROSS. 

The suburb of Dublin known as Harold's Cross, in which the 
cemetery of -Mount Jerome is situated, lies to the east of the parish 
of Crumlin between that parish and the modern Rathmines. It is 
included in the Rathmines township, and during recent years many 
of its ancient characteristics have disappeared owing to the increase 
of houses, and the transformation of a bare and unattractive 
common into a public garden. 

Harold's Cross stands on lands which formed, like those of 
Rathmines, part of the manor of St. Sepulchre, and its name is 
said to have originated in a cross which marked the boundary of 
the lands of the Archbishop of Dublin, and warned the Harolds, 
the wild guardians of the border of the Pale near Whitechurch, 
that they must not encroach. As mentioned in the history of 
Whitechurch, the lands which the Harolds occupied extended at 
one time almost if not quite to Harold's Cross, and the relations 
between them and the Archbishop of Dublin did not permit 
generally of friendly intercourse. If by any chance one of the 
border men dared to intrude he found at Harold's Cross a rude 
reminder of the power of the Archbishop's courts, for it was the 
place of execution for the manor of St. Sepulchre, and a gallows 
which stood there warned the wrong-doer of the fate that might 
attend him. From very early times the road through Harold's 
Cross, which until the last century was the direct route to Rath- 
farnham and the mountain district beyond, is mentioned, and 
from it some of the Harold's Cross lands were called in the four- 
teenth century the Pass. Other parts of the lands were then 



150 PORTIONS OF THE PARISHES OF ST. CATHERINE, ETC. 



known as Campus Sancti Patricii and Russel Rath, which has been 
corrupted into Rathland, and amongst the tenants we find William 
Moenes of Rathmines and Nicholas Sueterby (i). 

The name Mount Jerome occurs first in a Commonwealth 
Survey. It is not improbable that it was derived from the 
occupation of part of the Harold's Cross lands by the Rev. Stephen 
Jerome, now known as the author of one of the rarest of English 
printed books, and in his day a writer and preacher of some 
celebrity. For, although not mentioned in any notice of him 
Jerome, who was a graduate of Cambridge University, was for 
some years a beneficed clergyman in Dublin, and in 1639 was 
vicar of St. Kevin's parish in which the lands of Harold's Cross 
then actually lay. He is said to have come to Ireland as a 
chaplain to the great Earl of Cork. After the Rebellion Jerome 
was appointed a special preacher at St. Patrick's Cathedral " to 
stir up the devotion of the congregation and to instruct the 
soldiers in those times," and brought on himself the censure of the 
Irish House of Lords by his advocacy of Puritan opinions (2). 
During the Commonwealth the lands of Mount Jerome were held, 
together with other lands to the west of the highway, by Sir Adam 
Loft us of Rathfarnham, and the lands to the east of the highway, 
between ''Acres alias Harold's Cross" and Rathmines, by Sir 
William Ussher of Donnybrook (3). 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the lands of Mount 
Jerome, which had become the property of the Earl of Meath, 
were the site of a substantial house. This house is doubtless in- 
corporated in the handsome old mansion now to be seen in the 
cemetery, and was approached like the latter by an avenue ' * lined 
on each side with trees and quick sets." It was occupied in 1706, 
when his death took place, by Mr. Daniel Falkiner, the father of 
Mr. John Falkiner of Nangor Castle in Clondalkin parish. From 
him also descend the Falkiners of Abbotstown on whose last repre- 
sentative a baronetcy was conferred (4). Harold's Cross was then 
a very rural village with two houses of entertainment known re- 
spectively as the ''Cat and Bagpipes" and the "Cherry Tree," and 



(1) Harris' 'Works of Sir James Ware," vol. i., p. 300 ; " Notices of the Manor of 
St. Sepulchre," by James Mills, Journal, B.S.A.L, vol. xix., pp. 122-124. 

(^) " Dictionary of National Biography/' vol. xxix., p. 348 ; Carroirs " Succession of 
Clergy of St. Bride,' p. 13 ; Carte Papers, vol. iv., passim. 

(3) Book of Survey and Distribution. 

(4) Will of Daniel Falkiner ; Burke's Peerage and Baronetcy under Falkiner. 



HAROLD S CROSS. 



151 



near it there were several mills, including the upper mills and 
the wind mill, the way mill, and the wood mill. During the next 
hundred years Harold's Cross was a favourite summer retreat for 
the Dublin citizens, and physicians considered its air specially 
beneficial to invalids (i). About the middle of the eighteenth 
century Mount Jerome was the residence of the Wilkinson family 




A Mill near Harold's Cross in 1795* 

From a plate hy F. Jukes. 

now represented, as mentioned under Terenure, by Sir Frederick 
Shaw of Bushy Park. It belonged to Mr. Abraham Wilkinson, 
who died while residing at Mount Jerome in 1764, and who was 
father of the owner of Bushy Park, but other members of the 
family are mentioned in connection with the place, including 
Mrs. Peter Wilkinson, whose death is announced in 1759 as taking 
place at Mount Jerome, and Mr. George Wilkinson, who died in 
1786, while residing at Harold's Cross (2). The family of Weld was 
also for many years resident at Harold's Cross, the most prominent 
member of the family being Dr. Isaac Weld, who was minister of 



(*) Leases in Registry of Deeds ; " Diary of a Dublin Lady in the reign of 
George II.," by H. F. Berry, Journal^ R.S.A.I., vol. xxviii., p. 142. 

(*) Leases in possession of the Cemetery Company : Wills of the Wilkinson 
family ; Sleater's Public Gazetteer, vol. ii., p. 241. 



152 PORTIONS OF THE PARISHES OF ST. CATHERINE, ETC. 



a Baptist meeting house in Eustace-street, and *' a gentleman of 
exemplary piety and virtue " (i) . Amongst other inhabitants we 
find th^ last Earl of Roscommon, a man of the most excellent 
and charitable disposition. Who died at Harold's Cross in 1746, 
and Arthur Rochford, a brother of the first Lord Belvedere, who 
died there in 1774 (2). ' - - 

Before the close the last century, about the year 1784, Mount 
Jerome, which is described in his time as ** a venerable mansion 
embowered in trees," was purchased by Mr. John Keogh one of 
the leaders in the early movement for Catholic emancipation. 
He is said to have been a man of great natural ability endowed 
with much power as a nervous and persuasive speaker, and a 
great fortune acquired by his own exertions bears witness to his 
talent for business. Mount Jerome was his constant residence 
until his death in 1817, and it was from his descendants that the 
Cemetery Company in 1835 purchased the house and lands (3). 
About the year 1789 the Harold's Cross inhabitants found it 
necessary to establish a patrol to guard the roads and received 
high praise for ** their spirited endeavours to bring offenders to 
justice." Wire mills which then stood near the green attracted 
much public attention, and inns with the signs of the 
**RoyarOak" and the **01d Grinder's Joy" restored, which are still 
recollected, were probably at the end of the eighteenth century 
popular resorts (4). Harold's Cross continued to be frequented 
by invalids for many years after the opening of the nineteenth 
century, and the house so celebrated as providing a refuge for 
Robert Emmet must in his time have been quite a country 
one (5). 



C ) Wills of the Weld family ; Exahaws Magazine for 1778, p. 128. 

(*) Exahaio* 8 Magazine for 1746, p. 428, and for 1774, p. 328 ; Poems by John 
Winstanley (Dublin, 1742), p. 44. 

(*) " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxi., p. 33 ; Trotter's " Walks 
through Ireland," p. 5 ; Will of John Keogh. 

(4) Lewis' " Guide to Dublin,'' p. 146 ; Exahaws Magazine for 1789, p. 670 ; 
Carr's " Rathfarnham " in Neio Ireland Review^ vol. xii., p. 40. 

(5) Dublin Penny Journal, vol. iii., p. 369 ; Wakeman's " Old Dublin," Ser. ii., 
p. 33, in Evening Telegraph Reprints. 



t)OLPHIN*S BARN. 163 



Portions of the Parishes of 
St. James and St. Jude. 

(Formerly included in an extinct Parish called St. John of KilmainhamJ 

♦ 

These parishes contain the modern towulands of Butchersarms, Couyugham Road, 
Dolphinsbarn, Dolphiusbarn North, Qoldeubridge North and South 
Inchicore (f.c, the island of berries) North and South, Eilmainham (i.e., the 
church of St. Maighnenn), and Longmeadows, and portion of the Phoenix Park. 



DOLPHIN^S BARN. 

The district known as Dolphin's Barn, which lies to the west of 
Harold's Cross between that place and Kilmainham on the South 
Circular Road, formed portion of the lands belonging to the 
Priory of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmain- 
ham. It was originally called Karnanclonegunethe, and probably 
derived its present name from the Dolphin family, members of 
which are frequently mentioned in deeds of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries relating to Dublin. One of them, David 
Dolfyn, who was in 1237 about to be sent to England with 
treasure belonging to the State appears to have been a tenant of 
the Kilmainham Priory, as it was found necessary to provide that 
he should not be summoned to the court of the Hospitallers during 
his absence, and a further indication of his connection with the 
neighbourhood is the fact that his companion on his journey was 
to be John de Kilmainham (i). 

During the succeeding century many mills were erected in the 
Dolphin's Barn neighbourhood owing to the motive power pro- 
vided for them by the city watercourse which, as stated under 
Harold's Cross, passed through the district. This adaptation of 
the course for purposes other than a domestic one led to frequent 
complaints as to the contamination of the water. Particularly in 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, when, owing to the in- 
fluence of Sir Thomas Roper, Baron of Bantry and Viscount 



(A) Gilbert's " Ancient Records of Dublin," vol. i., pp. 2, 157, 194, 493 : Sweetman's 
Calendar, 1171-1251, No. 2406. 



154 PORTIONS OF PARISHES OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JUDE. 



Baltinglas, from whose family a place near Dolphin's Barn called 
Roper's Rest obtains its name, a mill " which caused much 
filthred " was allowed to stand on the course without interference. 
But when it was proposed to erect a tuckmill in its place the 
Corporation awoke to a sense of their duty and ordered Mr. Mayor 
at the first beginning of any nuisance or corruption to have it 
puUed down with the help of workmen and labourers (i). 

At the time of the Commonwealth the village of Dolphin's 
Barn contained *' two very fair houses," a mill, and five thatched 
cottages. It .was then completely separated from Dublin, and 
portion of the lands were known as Chillam's Farm from a 
Drogheda family of that name which had owned it before the 
rebellion. Its population was returned as numbering seventeen 
persons of English descent and fourteen of Irish. After the 
Restoration one of the houses rated as containing three hearths 
was occupied by William Budd, and another rated as containing 
two hearths by Sampson Holmes (2). During the early part of 
the eighteenth century Dolphin's Barn was celebrated on account 
of the hurling matches which were played there, and the death 
there in 1761 of ''an eminent tanner and weaver," Mr. 
John Stephens, may perhaps indicate that it still preserved its 
character as an industrial centre (3). 

The great event in the neighbourhood in the later part of the 
eighteenth century was the construction of the Grand Canal 
which completely altered its appearance. As first designed the 
canal started from James' Street, and the channel which leads 
from the Liffey at a point near Ringsend, and joins the original 
channel between Dolphin's Barn and Kilmainham, was a subse- 
quent addition. Before the advent of railways the canal carried 
passengers in what were known as fly-boats. These boats were 
light and narrow, and obtained their name from their being drawn 
by two or more horses which were ridden and proceeded at con- 
siderable speed. For this trafl&c the harbour with the adjoining 
hotel (now a private hospital) at Portobello, on the channel leading 



(i) Gilbert's "Ancient Records of Dublin," vol. iii., p. 261. 

(2) Down Survey Map ; Book of Survey and Distribuiiou ; Hatchell's "Grants 
under Commission of Grace," p. 35 ; Census of 1659 ; Hearth Money and Subsidy 
Rolls. 

(8) Amory's "Life of John Buncle," vol. i., p. 104; Stealer's Public Gazetteer^ 
vol. iv., p. 453. 



DOLPHIN S BABN. 



155 




I 

I 

si 






4 



156 PORTIONS OF Parishes ot st. jaMes and St. jude. 

to the Liffey, was opened in 1807, but until then the fly-boats 
started from James' Street. In the accompanying picture one of 
the fly-boats is shown going to the latter place, and passing 
through a lock near a bridge on the South Circular Road, which 
from its shape has become known as Kialtc Bridge, but which was 
originally named Harcourt Bridge from the first Earl of Harcourt 
who was Lord Lieutenant when the canal was opened (i). 



THE . KILMAINHAM VICINITY, , 

With gperial reference to Island Bridye and hichieore. 

As stated in the introduction, the Circular Road, by which the 
Metropolis is encompassed, has been adopted for the purpose 
of this work as the boundary between the county and city of 
Dublin. This limit entails the omission of more than one locality 
which in former times was completely isolated from the city with 
an existence of its own, and above all of Kilmainham, which 
adjoins Dolphin's Barn on the north. There in the middle ages 
stood, in the midst of green fields, the great Priory of the 
Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, and even in the eighteenth 
century its successor, the present Royal Hospital, had at its gate 
a country village. But these pages are only concerned with the 
history of Kilmainham so far as it relates to the portion of the 
Kilmainham lands on which now stand the suburbs of Dublin 
know as Island Bridge and Inchicore. 

Kilmainham is said to have obtained its name from the founda- 
tion in Celtic times of a monastery on its lands by St. Maighnenn. 
It was in the eleventh century the place of encampment for the 
Irish forces under King Brian before their encounter with the 
Danes at Clontarf, and at the time of the Anglo-Norman in- 
vasion during the siege of Dublin an Irish army again took up 
its station there. Under Anglo-Norman rule the great Priory 
of the Hospitallers was established at Kilmainham, and subse- 
quently its possessions were largely increased by a gift of lands 
from the Tyrrells of Castleknock. This gift included in addition 



(1) Whitelaw and Walsh's " History of Dublin," vol. ii., p. 1221 • Hihen 
Magazine for 1771, p. 283 ; M'Cready's " Dublin Street Names," p. 15. ' 



THE KILMAINHAM VICINITY. 157 



to the lands a moiety of the river LiflFey '' as far as the water- 
course near the gallows," which stood where the entrance to the 
Phoenix Park in Parkgate Street is now situated (}) . 

The name Island Bridge has originated in the construction of a 
bridge across the Liffey near a point where an island exists in 
that river. Before the erection of a bridge the Liffey was crossed 
where Island Bridge is now situated by a ford known as Kil- 
mahanock's Ford, and it is not until the reign of Henry VIII. 
that the existence of a bridge near Kilmainham is mentioned. 
It is then referred to in connection with the rebellion of Silken 
Thomas in 1534, during which the O'Tooles took advantage of the 
general disturbance in the Government to descend from their 
mountain home on the somewhat distant lands of Fingal. As 
we are told, on hearing of this foray, the Dublin citizens sallied 
out with the intention of intercepting the return of the OTooles 
at Kilmainham Bridge, which was the route the O'Tooles had 
taken, but for some reason the citizens advanced from thence to 
Grangegorman where they encountered the OTooles at a wood 
called Salcock and were defeated with great loss. Again, a year 
later in the month of November, Sir William Skeffington, who was 
then Lord Deputy of Ireland, when on a journey from Trim to 
Dublin, heard that a party of the Geraldines were lying in wait 
for him near the bridge of Kilmainham. Torrential rain was 
falling at the time, which had deprived the footmen in his com- 
pany of all power of resistance by relaxing their bow strings and 
washing the feathers from their arrows, but with the help of the 
ordnance, " which as chance was were good pieces that day," 
Skeffington, who was known as the gunner, passed the footmen 
over the bridge, which he says was extremely narrow, without the 
loss of a single man. There were then two mills of considerable 
importance near the bridge and no doubt many residents; but 
much of the adjoining lands, including those of Inchicore, and 
some of those now enclosed in the Phoenix Park, were covered 
with wood, and in these woods the Geraldines had hoped to 
conceal themselves until the moment for action arose (2). 



(-^) D'Al ton's " History of the County Dublin," p. 604. 



(^) Gilbert's "Ancient Records of Dublin/' vol. i., p. 197 ; Wliitelaw and Walsh's 
"History of Dublin," vol. i., p. 189; State Papers, Henry VIII., vol iii., pt. ii., 
p. 233. 



158 PORTIONS OF PARISHES OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JUDE. 

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, while Sir Henry Sidney 
was Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1577, an arched stone bridge was 
thrown over the Liffey at Island Bridge (i), but the surroundings 
had not improved. After the dissolution of the religious houses 
the possessions of the Priory at Kilmainham had been leased by 
the Crown to various persons, with the result that at the beginning 
of the seventeenth century ruinous houses and waste places 
abounded there. About the time of the Rebellion of 1641 the 
neighbourhood was occupied principally by an industrial popula- 
tion. The mills, which were then known as the island mills, had 
become so extensive as to be worth a rent of £200 of the money 
of those times, and were the principal means for supplying the'fcirmy 
with corn. They had come into the possession of the Crown, and 
a grant of them which was made to Sir John Temple, then Master 
of the Rolls, who has been noticed under the adjacent parish of 
Palmerston, gave rise to much controversy. The lands at Island 
Bridge were then cultivated by market gardeners, one of whom 
alleged great losses during the rebellion, and stated that his son 
had been so barbarously treated '' that he languished and 
died "(2). 

Soon after the Restoration the lands of Inchicore, Island Bridge 
and Kilmainham were enclosed in the Phoenix Park, which was 
then designed and made by the Duke of Ormonde, but this ar- 
rangement lasted only for about twenty years, and the Phoenix 
Park was then reduced to its present limits. While enclosed in 
the Phoenix Park the villages and public thoroughfares existed 
as they had done formerly. During the Commonwealth 
the mills had been described as consisting of two double mills 
and a single mill, ^nd after the Restoration they were leased, 
together with six fishing weirs near Island Bridge, to the Lord 
Chancellor, Sir Maurice Eustace, the owner of the adjoining 
lands of Chapelizod (3). At the latter time there were 
some twenty houses and cottages at Island Bridge, the prin- 
cipal inhabitants being Benjamin Boulton, whose house had 



(}) Austin Cooper meutions in his Note- book, under the year 1781, that the bridge 
bore Sidney's arms with the date 1577, of which Cooper had a copy. 

(2) Patent Rolls, Jas. I., p. 340 ; Carte Papers, vol. iv., f. 462, vol. v., f. 315, vol. 
clxiv., f. 452 ; Ormonde Manuscripts, N.S., vol. ii., p. 303, published by Historical 
Manuscripts Commission ; Deposition of 1641 (Margaret Cooke). 

(5) Down Survey Map j Exchequer Order, p. 358. 



THE KILMAINHAM VICINITY. 159 

three hearths, and a miller called John Harris (i) whose house 
had two hearths ; but at Inchicore, although before the Rebellion 
a substantial brick residence had stood on the lands, there 
was only a single inhabitant whose house was rated as containing 
but one hearth (2). About this time the place of execution was 
moved from its old site on the ground near Parkgate Street to 
Kilmainham, where a gaol then existed (8). 

Later on houses began to be built by Dublin citizens in the 
Kilmainham neighbourhood, and during the eighteenth century it 
continued to be a favourite residential locality. At Island Bridge 
resided in the early part of that century Sir William Fownes, who 
numbered Dean Swift amongst his friends and admirers, and 
furnished the Dean with a scheme for the foundation of an 
asylum for lunatics. Fownes was possibly attracted to Island 
Bridge by the fact that he held at one time the office of ranger 
of the Phoenix Park. He was a knight and baronet who had 
filled the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin, and represented in 
Parliament during the reign of Queen Anne the borough of 
Wicklow, and during the reign of George II. the borough of 
Dingle. His exclusion from Parliament during the reign of 
George I. was doubtless due to his political opinions being in accord 
of those of his friend the Dean, who pronounces him to have been 
a wise and useful citizen as well as a man of taste and humour, 
praise which he would not have accorded to a political opponent. 
Sir William Fownes, who died in 1735 at a very advanced age, 
and was succeeded in his baronetcy by his grandson, is now repre- 
sented by the Tighes of Woodstock. His house at Island Bridge 
was quite rural in its surroundings, which included a straw house 
and a granary, in addition to gardens, and a path called the 
Mount walk overlooking the Liffey, and was handsomely fur- 
nished, as is evidenced by the mention of brass grates and door 
fittings and of pictures which covered the walls of every room. 
After Sir William Fownes' death his home passed into the pos- 
session of one of his sons-in-law Robert Cope of Loughgall. Cope 
and his wife '' who entertained this covetous lampooning Dean 
much better than he deserved" enjoyed in a special degree Swift's 



(1) Doubtless a house at Island Bridge belonged to him, or to some member of his 
family, on which Austin Cooper tells us there were the letter H, surmounting the 
letters I and A, divided by a heart, and the date 1684. 

(2) Hearth Money Roll. 

(') Carte Papers, vol. cliv., f. 71. 



160 PORTIONS OF PARISHES OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JUDE. 

favour, and at one time their house at Loughgall was the only 
country one which Swift could tolerate. Besides the house at 
Island Bridge Cope succeeded through his wife to property in 
Dublin near College Green, where Cope Street and Fownes Street 
commemorate the connection of himself and his father-in-law 
with that vicinity (i). 

At Inchicore the Annesley family had at that time a house 
which is frequently referred to in the famous Annesley peerage 
case. It stood not far from an inn from which the townland 
of Butchersarms takes its name. It was the residence of 
the claimant's father Arthur, fourth Lord Altham, at the time 
of his death in 1727, and was subsequently occupied by the 
claimant's uncle, the defendant in the suit, Richard, fifth Lord 
Altham, who also succeeded on the death of his cousin to the 
titles of Earl of Anglesey and Viscount Valentia (2). The Annes- 
leys were not the only residents near Kilmainham connected with 
that extraordinary legal struggle. At the time of the trial, in 1743, 
Sir William Fownes' house at Island Bridge was occupied by one of 
the judges before whom the suit was tried, John Bowes, then 
Chief Baron of the Exchequer and afterwards Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, of whom more will be told under Drumcondra where he 
subsequently resided (8), and a house at Kilmainham was the 
home of one of the counsel for the defendant, Simon Bradstreet, a 
lawyer of great eminence. Bradstreet contested the Parliamentary 
representation of Dublin in the year 1737, but unsuccessfully, 
although we find him, in order to promote his candidature, en- 
gaging a band of music to play once a week at the Basin for *' the 
entertainment of the ladies and gentlemen and the rest of his 
fellow-citizens." On him a baronetcy was conferred to which his 
second son, Sir Samuel Bradstreet, who has been noticed under 
Booterstown, succeeded on the death of his elder brother. The 
house at Kilmainham long continued to be a residence of the 
Bradstreet family. Sir Simon Bradstreet, who, as has been 



(^) "Swift's Works," edited by Sir Walter Scott, passim; Return of Members of 
Parliament; G. E. C.'s Complete Baronetage, vol. v., p. 347 ; Wills of Sir William 
Fownes and Robert Cope ; Burke's " Extinct Baronetage " and " Landed Gentry." 

(2) " The Trial in Ejectment between Campbell Craig lessor of James Annesley, 
Esq., and others, plaintiffs ; and the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Anglesey, de- 
fendant," Dublin, 1744, passim. 

(') Dublin Journal, No. 1869, 



THE KILMAINHAM VICINITY. 161 

already mentioned, was buried at Clondalkin, died at Kilmainhain 
in 1762 and his widow was also residing there at the time of her 
death in 1779 (i). 

The increase of inhabitants did not interfere however with 
industrial enterprises. The mills at Island Bridge still main- 
tained their importance and had advanced with the times, as 
appears from an advertisement in 1738 which oflFers them for sale, 
together with the salmon weirs and island in the Liffey, and states 
that they were provided with French and other stones for grind- 
ing corn and preparing flour (2). A brewery had also been 
established at Island Bridge by John Davies, who died in 1704, 
and another was afterwards owned there by Richard Pockrich, one 
of the most extraordinary characters Ireland has ever produced, 
who dissipated a great fortune in promoting such visionary 
schemes as transforming bogs into vineyards and men into 
birds (3). The market gardens had given place to a celebrated 
nursery where pine-apples, then a new delight, and the finest 
flowers could be procured. It was owned by one Andrew 
Haubois, and possibly his house was known by the sign of the 
*' Black Lion,'' as a lady of the period records that garden mould 
could be purchased at a house with that sign at Island Bridge (^). 
The neighbourhood had then however some more serious draw- 
backs than manufactures. As in the case of Crumlin, races on 
the commons, which existed at that time at Kilmainham, attracted 
there very undesirable people, and in 1747, during an attempt 
to suppress the races, the soldiers were called out and several per- 
sons were shot (S). But even more disagreeable was the presence 
of the place of execution for the county, near which a windmill 
was destroyed in 1763 from a rather remarkable circumstance, the 
heating of the iron work during a storm (6). 

The house at Island Bridge which had belonged to Sir William 
Fownes was bequeathed by Robert Cope to his second son who 



(^) Dublin News-Letter, vol. i., Nos. 8, 44, 109 ; Exshaios Moufazine for 1762, 
p. 246, for 1774, p. 61, and for 1779, p. 656 ; Irish Builder for 1887, p. 155 ; 
G. E. C.'s " Complete Baronetage," vol. v., p. 363. 

(2) Dublin NetoS'Letter, vol. ii., No. 129. 

(3) Will of John Davies ; Newburgh's " Essays, Poetical, Moral and Critical," 
p. 235 ; " Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xlv., p. 451. 

(4) Sleaters Public Gazetteer , voU i., p. 78 ; vol. iv., p. 287 ; Journal RS.AJ., 
vol. xxviii., p. 152. 

(5) Exshaw's Magazine for 1747, p. 347. 

(«) The Irish Builder for 1895, p. 37 ; Sleater's Public Gazetteer, vol. vii., p. 178. 

H 



162 PORTIONS OF PARISHES OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JUDE. 

bore the same name, and who died there in 1765. Amongst other 
residents at Island Bridge in that century may be mentioned in 
1720 Robert Crowe, in 1724 Robert Curtis, *' resident chirurgeon 
of the Royal Hospital," in 1736 Lieutenant William Cox, in 1738 
Edward Ford, in 1746 William Noy, an attorney and justice of 
the peace, in 1749 Michael Jones, in 1764 Anthony Green, in 
1768 Captain Thomas Pennefather, who became connected with 
the place through his wife, a member of the Goodwin family, 
the members of which long held a responsible position in connection 
with the Royal Hospital, in 1786 Thomas Keightley," and in 1799 
Sir John Trail (i). 



(^) Wills of the persons mentioned ; and Exshmo's Magazine for 1746, p. 594, aad 
for 1768, p. 576 ; Sleater's Public Gazetteer for 1764, p. 306. 



CHAPELIZOD. 163 



Parish of Chapelizod. 



This parish contains the townland of Chapelizod, and portion of the Phoenix Park. 
The only object of antiquarian interest is the tower of the parish church, 



CHAPELIZOD. 

The village of Chapelizod, which lies between Island Bridge and 
Palmerston, and is picturesquely situated on the northern bank of 
the river Liffey, contains now a flour mill and distillery, and is 
mainly occupied by persons employed in them. Although here 
and there one sees an old time house that has seen better days, the 
thought would never suggest itself that Chapelizod had once been 
the site of a great mansion. Yet such was the case, and in a 
field sloping down to the Liffey on the south of the road from 
Dublin stood what was knowp as the King's House in which 
William III. held his court for some days. 

An ancient tradition connects Chapelizod with La belle Isoude, 
the heroine of the poets, and traces the origin of the place-name 
to her. According to the " Book of Howth" she was the daughter 
of Anguisshe, King of Ireland, who flourished in the days of 
King Arthur and the knights of the round table. To King 
Anguisshe, a King of Cornwall called Mark had been wont to 
pay tribute, but he disputed his obligation to do so, and it was 
determined that the question should be decided by combat be- 
tween two knights. The knights. Sir Marly n, a brother of the 
Queen of Ireland, representing King Anguisshe, and Sir Tristram 
representing King Mark, met in Cornwall with the result that 
both were wounded in the conflict. Although able to return to 
Ireland Sir Marlyn soon died, and after his death Sir Tristram, 
whose wound had been caused by a poisoned spear, came to 
this country, as he was told none except La belle Isoude could 
cure the hurt. The Queen of Ireland had taken out of her 
brother's wound a piece of iron, which she had kept, and observing 
one day a gap in Sir Tristram's sword she was prompted to try 
whether .this piece of iron fitted it, She found that they agreed, 

m2 



164 PARISH OF CHAPELIZOD. 



and forthwith caused her brother's adversary to be banished from 
the Irish court, but meantime he had won the heart of La belle 
Isoude, who followed him to England. Whether this tale 
has any foundation in fact, or whether, if so. La Belle Isoude had 
any connection with Chapelizod must remain a matter of doubt, 
but a spring called Isoude's font, which lay between Kilmainham 
and the Phoenix Park, as well as a building called Isoude's tower 
in the walls of old Dublin, tend to indicate that at some period 
a celebrated person of the name of Isoude was resident in Dublin 
or its neighbourhood (i). 

The lands of Chapelizod appear to have been reserved under the 
Anglo-Norman settlement as Crown property. By King John they 
were leased, together with the lands of Killsallaghan, to Richard 
de la Felde. Later on the Justiciary of Ireland took the lands 
of both these places, which he had extended, into the King's 
hands, but in 1220 the King, tempted by a higher rent than 
. the former tenant had given, leased the lands to Thomas Fitz- 
Adam. A few years later, in 1224, Nicholas, son of Richard de 
la Felde, offered four times as much for the lands as his father 
had given, but the lands were then divided, and those of 
Chapelizod were, in 1225, leased to Richard de Burgh, then 
Justiciary of Ireland. His tenure was short, and in 1235 his 
successor was seeking for a new tenant and increased rent for 
Chapelizod. The manor, as it was then called, appears to have 
been for a time in the King's hands. There is mention in the 
accounts of the Exchequer of seven oxen bought for the plough 
of Chapelizod, and a weir there is referred to as the property 
of the Crown. But the Chapelizod lands were soon leased again, 
and amongst the farmers or middlemen in the later part of the 
thirteenth century were William de Lindesay, the Bishop of 
Meath, Henry de Gorham and his wife Annora, and Nigel le Brun 
the King's valet, while William de Estdene held for some years 
the demesne lands. 

The town of Chapelizod was surrounded with walls, and it was 
probably with a view to its improvement that in 1290 the King's 
mills and houses there were leased to William Pren, the King's 
carpenter, who is afterwards described as a felon. Amongst those 
mentioned in connection with Chapelizod at that time we find 



(1) The AthenfBum for 1902, pp. 473, 537, 63?? ; Calendar of Carew State Papers, 
Book of Howth, p. 237 ; Gilbert's " History of Dublin," vol. ii., p. 115. 



^HA&£:Ltzofi. 165 



Richard of Ballyfermot, and Thomas Cantock, the Chancellor of 
Ireland, referred to under that place. The Priory of the 
Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham appears to 
have been also connected with Chapelizod, and early in the 
next century was granted the manor on the death of Richard de 
Wodehose, who then held it, together with the King's fishery and 
a mill. Subsequently, in 1380, the King regranted to the Priory 
the fishery at Chapelizod together with a weir and a sluice. At 
that time a small holding there still belonged to the de la 
Feldes, and was then granted to the parish church by a member 
of that family (i). 

The Kilmainham Priory continued to hold the manor of 
Chapelizod for the next hundred years, as appears from numerous 
charges on the issues of that place made by the Crown, but in 
1476 the manor was taken from that establishment and granted 
to Sir Thomas Daniel. To him succeeded in the sixteenth century 
Sir William Wyse of Waterford. The principal resident at that 
time was Richard Savage, who, in 1536, was described as a 
yeoman of the Crown, and was granted the office of chief sergeant 
of all the baronies of the County Dublin, and of the cantred of 
Newcastle Lyons. Savage was married to Anson Warburton, but 
had no children, and on his death in 1580 his possessions at 
Chapelizod passed to his sister, who had married one of the Meys 
of Kilmactalway. The Burnells of Balgriffin had become possessed 
of lands at Chapelizod which, during the sixteenth century, passed 
to the Bathe family, and John White of Dufferin was also owner 
of property in the town at the close of that century (2) . 

Some information as to the town of Chapelizod at the beginning 
of the seventeenth century is to be obtained from a grant of three 
messuages, and some land there made to James the First's cele- 
brated Irish Attorney-General, Sir John Davies. The walls were ap- 
parently then still standing as the east gate of the town is men- 
tioned, and amongst the buildings then well known was the mill 
and *' the common bakehouse," which stood close to a path called 
the blind way. The church stile, and ** the old wood called the 



(J-) Sweetinan's Calendar, 1171-IB07, passim ; Patent Rolls, passim; Memoranda 
Roll, 8 Edw. II., m. 4 ; Chancery Inquisition, Co. Dublin, Jac. I., No. 10. 

(*) Patent Rolls, passim ; D' Alton's " History of the County Dublin^** p. 545 r 
Fiants Henry VIII., Nos. 53, 247, 482 ; Philip and Mary, No. 249 ; Exchequer In- 
quisition, Co. Dublin, Philip and Mary, No. 34 ; Elizabeth, No. 186 ; Patent Rolls 
Jac. I., pp. 76, 169. 



166 PARISH OF CHAPELIZOD. 

stucking " are also referred to, and amongst the lands named in 
the grant are the north park, the cherry park, the stang, the 
scrubby park, the meadow park, the oaten park, the farm park, 
the ash park, and the orchard park Q), 

At that time there appears at Chapelizod one of the most 
distinguished soldiers in the Irish wars at the close of Queen 
Elizabeth's reign, Sir Henry Power, who was afterwards created 
Viscount Valentia. Power, who became not only the owner of, 
but a resident, at Chapelizod, acquired first the property there 
belonging to the Whites, and afterwards was granted, as the 
assignee of one Edward Medhop, the entire manor, excepting such 
portion as belonged to Sir John Davies and to the parish church. 
It was in the year 1598 that Power came to Ireland. He had 
previously seen much service, which had gained for him the honour 
of knighthood, not only on land but also on sea. A few years 
before he had accompanied Sir Francis Drake on his last ex- 
pedition to the West Indies, and he was with the English army 
in Picardy when the order reached him to come to this country ^ 
He sailed from Dieppe in February with over six hundred men, 
and after "a very chargeable voyage" landed safely at Water- 
ford. He was at once placed in the fighting line, and for the 
next few years was continuously in the field. According to the 
Earl of Ormonde, who was Lord Deputy when he arrived. Power 
acquitted himself most valiantly, and the Earl of Ormonde's 
successor, the Earl of Essex, who possibly had previous knowledge 
of Power, and considered him capable of high military authority, 
sent him to Munster as commander of the forces in that province. 
He was more than once wounded, and the company under his 
immediate control was said to be the best trained and provided 
m Ireland. At first he had reason to complain of the considera- 
tion shown him, and says that no man had struck so many blows 
to gain a reputation with so small return, and that few would 
be willing to spend so much time, money, and blood as he had 
done for so small a reward. But he was not overlooked as he 
supposed, and soon afterwards was appointed to the governorship 
of Leix, which appears to have been a remunerative position. 

Under the rule of Sir Arthur Chichester Power was appointed 
a privy councillor, and he sat in the Parliament of 1613 as mem- 
bar for the Queen's County. It was doubtless mainly to his 



W Patent Rolls, Jac. I., p. 213. 



CBAPELIZOD^ 167 



ability as a statesman that he owed his elevation in 1621 to the 
peerage as Viscount Valentia ; but three years later military ardour 
again possessed him, and he crossed to England with the object of 
obtaining fresh employment in the army. The command of a 
troop of horse in Ireland, which he was soon given^ did not satisfy 
him, and in the following year he joined in the expedition then 
undertaken against Cadiz as Master of the Ordnance. The con- 
duct of this campaign did not meet with his approval, and in a 
letter written after his return to Ireland he expresses his un- 
willingness to serve again under similar circumstances, but 
submits himself to the King's pleasure. In this letter, which 
was written in January, 1627, he gives a terrible account of his 
voyage to Ireland, whence he had come by long sea from London 
in a transport laden with stores and ordnance, and tells how, near 
the Scilly Islands, they lost all their masts and sails, and were 
driven *' hither and thither/' With this expedition Viscount 
Valentia's active service seems to have ended, and on his succeed- 
ing in 1634 to the reversion of the office of marshal of the Irish 
army he seems to have been considered unequal to discharge the 
duties, and resigned the office before his death, which took place in 
1642 (1), 

The King's House at Chapelizod was erected by Lord Valentia. 
It was a brick building, constructed evidently in the fashion of 
that time with a courtyard and entrance gateway, and was of 
great extent, being rated as containing no less than fifteen 
chimneys. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the green 
meadows sloping down from the village of Chapelizod to the river 
Liffey contained some traces of the foundation of the house, and 
even now, as a recent writer remarks, they still reveal some indica- 
tion of former stateliness (2). Lord Valentia, who is described in 
his patent as of Bersham in DenbighsTiire, married a Welsh lady, a 
sister of Lancelot Bulkeley, Archbishop of Dublin, who with his 
family enters so largely into the history of Tallaght parish. She 
died a year before her husband and was buried with great pomp in 
St. Patrick's Cathedral. By her Lord Valentia had no children, 
and his title, as had been arranged when it was conferred on him, 



(^) Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1598-1641, passim; Calendar of Domestic 
State Papers, 1598-1641, passim ; Return of Members of Parliament. 

(A) Loveday's " Diary of a Tour in 1732,** p. 28, published by Roxburghe 
Society 5 Hearth Money Rolls; Falkiner*B "Illustrations of Irish History and 
Topography," p. 63. 



I6d ^ARtSH 6f CHAPfiLlZdft. 

passed on his death to Sir Francis Annesley, then Lord Mount- 
norris, to whom he was related. A niece of Lady Valentia appears 
to have been adopted by her and her husband as their child. This 
niece married Sir Henry Spottiswood, son of James Spottiswood, 
Bishop of Clogher, and nephew of the better-known John Spottis- 
wood, Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Scotch historian. It would 
appear from an extraordinary account of " the labyrinth of 
troubles" into which the Bishop of Clogher fell in this country 
that the marriage was promoted by other people and was not alto- 
gether such as he would have desired ; but Sir Henry and his wife 
appear to have lived very happily with their uncle and aunt at 
Chapelizod, and the latter certainly appear to have been very true 
friends of the Bishop on an occasion when he seems to have been 
strangely forgetful of his oflSce (i). 

At Chapelizod there resided in Lord Valentia's time an artificer 
of great renown, Edmond Tingham, who is described as a stone- 
cutter, but who seems to have been no less skilled in design 
than in execution, and capable of working in wood as well 
as in stone. Of his work an enduring memorial exists 
in the Earl of Cork's tomb in St. Patrick's Cathedral. 
As appears from the diary of the Earl of Cork the 
construction of the monument was entrusted entirely to Ting- 
ham, and although one may not altogether agree with a con- 
temporary traveller in speaking of it as '* the very famous, 
sumptuous, and glorious tomb of the Earl Cork " it must be ad- 
mitted that Tingham was not unworthy of the trust reposed in 
him. The tomb is made of marble, which is said to have been 
raised within two miles of the city of Dublin, and was erected at 
a cost of £400, a vast sum in the money of that time. It was 
more than two years before the tomb was finished, and meantime 
we find the Earl of Cork employing Tingham in other work. To 
Tingham's *' judgment, honesty, and care" the Earl confided the 
completion of his new gallery and study in his Dublin residence, 
and apparently the chimney-pieces, wainscotting, and great nest 
of boxes for his papers were * ' as well and gracefully disposed, 
ordered and finished " as the Earl could desire. Then at May- 
nooth the Earl made use of Tingham in a larger undertaking, the 



(1) G. E. C.'s " Complete Peerage,'* vol. viii. p. 13 ; •* A Briefe Memorial of the 
Lyfe and Death of Doctor Jaraes Spottiswood, Bishop of Clogher," Edin., 18U ; 
Lismore Papers, Ser. i., vol. iv., p. 20. 



6^A?teLi2;oft. 169 



pulling down of an old house, and building of a new one for his 
son-in-law, the Earl of Kildare, and although care was necessary 
in financing Tingham, the workmanship completely satisfied the 
experienced eye of his vigilant employer (i). 

When the Commonwealth came the village of Chapelizod con- 
tained a cloth-mill, as well as a flour-mill, and comprised ten 
slated houses, besides thatched or chaff-houses as they are called. 
There was a quarry for good building stone in the vicinity, and 
the salmon fishery on the Liffey was a large one. ** The fair 
mansion house," as Lord Valentia's residence is described in the 
Survey, was surrounded with extensive oflSces, and the same value 
was placed on it as on the castle of Luttrellstown. To it were at- 
tached gardens, orchards and plantations, and these, with the 
house and other buildings, seem to have been in excellent order, 
and to have come through the troublous times without damage. 
During the earlier part of the Commonwealth period the great 
house seems to have been in possession of Sir Theophilus Jones, 
then also the owner of Lucan, but at the time of the Restoration 
the principal persons connected with Chapelizod were David 
Edwards, John Mason, and Rouse Davis (2). 

After the Restoration the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir 
Maurice Eustace, as mentioned in the notice of that statesman 
under Falmerston, became possessed of Chapelizod, and used Lord 
Valentia's house from time to time as a country residence. When 
the Duke of Ormonde was coming to Ireland as viceroy in 1662 
Eustace advised him to stay at the Phoenix, then the viceregal 
rural retreat, the site of which is now occupied by the Magazine 
in the Phoenix Park, and, after giving his reasons, expresses his 
hope that Ormonde will stay there, as he will then have ** the 
happiness of being his Grace's near neighbour at Chapelizod." 
Before he had been many weeks in Ireland Ormonde conceived 
the design of making the Phoenix Park, in which is comprised 
the greater portion of the original lands of Chapelizod, and 
Eustace's possessions became to Ormonde a Naboth's vineyard. 
But they did not long remain so, as Eustace was not unwilling to 
sell, and within three months arbitrators were appointed to value 



{^) The Lismore Papers, Ser. i., vol. iii., pp. 35, 90, 134, 141, 149, 171, 175 ; 
Falkiner's " Illustrations of Irish History and Topography," p. 378. 

(') Civil Survey of Castleknock ; Down Survey ; Census of 1659. 



170 PABISH OF CHAPELIZOD. 



some four hundred and fifty acres which Eustace had undertaken 
to surrender for the King's convenience and accommodation. In 
the following jear the scheme was further extended, and it was 
resolved to buy the whole manor of Chapelizod with the town 
and the great house. 

This decision was doubtless in a measure due lo a desire to se- 
cure the great house, which was more commodious than the Phoenix, 
as a viceregal residence, and as soon as the purchase had been 
completed Ormonde moved into it. In order to fit it for its 
new occupant the house was placed in the hands of the 
Government contractor, one William Dodson. His dealings with 
the State are an extraordinary illustration of the lax Treasury 
administration in the seventeenth century. At Chapelizod, 
however, he proceeded warily. He furnished first in 1666 only 
a small account for the cost of new flooring two of the rooms and 
erecting a chimney piece, but he sent in two years later an 
enormous account, made out in the most approved style of a 
modern dishonest tradesman, for a few shillings under a thousand 
pounds. This account, with many others from Dodson, was re- 
ferred to a commission, and the commissioners reported that the 
expense of the repairs to the house were not proportional to the 
sum ** pretended to be laid out by Dodson," and that " the house 
had not been left by him staunch or likely to continue long habit- 
able with safety." At the same time Dodson furnished an account 
for building a bridge across the Liffey at Chapelizod, and this was 
the only case in which the commissioners found that the work had 
been well done, and was worth the money charged. During Or- 
monde's viceroyalty much use was made of the house at Chapelizod. 
In the winter of 1665 the Duchess went there, as Dublin did not 
agree with her, and while Ormonde was in London in 1668, one of 
his retinue wrote to tell him that the Duchess was busy nailing and 
grafting with the gardener at Chapelizod. At that time 
Ormonde's son, Lord Arran, who was acting as his Deputy, lost 
there his firsti wife. When in the following year Ormonde was 
called on to surrender the sword to Lord Robartes, the grounds 
had evidently been brought to high perfection under the care of 
the Duchess, and we find her writing from London to desire that 
they should not be allowed to suffer in the interregnum (i). 

. W Carte Papers, vol. xxxi., f. 373 ; vol. xxxii., f. 137 ; vol. xxxiii., f. 370 ; vol. 
xxxvi., f. 196 ; vol. cliv., f. 71 ; Ormonde Papers, N.S., vol. iii., passim, published by 
Historical Manuscripts Commission. 



CHAPELIZOD. 171 



The Duke of Ormonde directed his attention largely during his 
tenure of oflSce at that time to the encouragement of manu- 
factures in Ireland, and formed a council of trade for the pur- 
pose of promoting them. Amongst the factories started as a re- 
sult of the deliberations of this council was one for the manu- 
facture of linen at Chapelizod. This factory was placed by 
Ormonde under the direction of Colonel Richard Lawrence, who 
appears to have carried on then the business of an upholsterer in 
Dublin, but who had occupied a prominent position under the 
Commonwealth as Governor of Wexford, and enjoyed the con- 
fidence of Henry Cromwell. The factory was not long started 
before Ormonde was called to England, and in the autumn of 
1668, as appears from a report sent to him by Lawrence, the neces- 
sary buildings were only approaching completion » Some houses for 
the artizans had been finished that summer, and a thatched barn, 
which stood on the side of the hill facing the great house, had been 
converted into a work house for twenty looms. But fourteen 
houses for the artizans were still unfinished. These were being 
built of brick, two stories in height, and were intended for 
foreign artists from Holland, and for some eight or ten families 
from Rochelle and the Isle of Rhe. Lawrence had accepted the 
supervision of the factory with reluctance, and found the diflficul- 
ties which he had anticipated greatly increased by Ormonde's 
absence, but was sanguine that he could lay '* such a foundation 
not only of linen, but of woollen and worsted manufacture, at 
Chapelizod " as would benefit posterity. Already he had made as 
good linen cloth and diaper of Irish yarn as was made in any 
country in Europe, had begun the manufacture of blankets and 
friezes, and of carpets and coverings for chairs, and had set up 
the trade of combing wool. 

The report was accompanied by sundry proposals on the part of 
Colonel Lawrence for the development of the Chapelizod in- 
dustries, and contemplated the employment of two or three 
hundred workpeople there, and a multitude throughout the 
country. In addition the necessity of subsidiary factories '' where 
as a beehive Chapelizod should pour out its swarms" was touched 
upon. Lawrence had given up his own business in Dublin where 
he tells Ormonde he was settled '^ in as plentiful a way of trade as 
most of his quality," and his scheme included a suggestion for his 
own aggrandizement to the position of a justice of the peace, which 
he represented as requisite ' ' owing to the disposition to disorder of 



172 ^ARtdH 6F 6HAPfeLl26A. 



the workpeople and their aptness to deceive." Ormonde appears 
to have been alarmed for the moment by the extent of the under- 
taking to which he was being committed, but was reassured by his 
advisers, and did ail he could to help Lawrence, who went over to 
London to see him. As a result of Ormonde's recommendations 
the linen board decided to place the bleaching yard for Leinster 
at Chapelizod, and the contract for the supply of linen to the 
army was given to the factory there. In the succeeding years 
Lawrence retained Ormonde's confidence, although there are in- 
dications that the Duchess and Ormonde's agent were not always 
sympathetic, and not only gave Ormonde advice with regard to the 
establishment of various industries on, his property, but also un- 
solicited suggestions as to finance on which Lawrence considered 
himself a great authority. But his work at Chapelizod came to an 
end in eleven years owing, as he alleged, to the withdrawal of a 
contract for the supply of woollen goods to the army, and the last 
we see of him is in London in 1683, a year before his death, with 
Sir William Petty ' ' tumbling the argument of coin up and down 
with little edification to their hearers" (i). 

Chapelizod must have been at that period a lively place, for in 
addition to the viceregal residence and the factory, it possessed, 
like Templeogue at a later date, a mineral spa. This spa, which 
seems to have been much resorted to, is eulogised in what is now 
a scarce pamphlet by one Dr. Bellon, who dedicates his brochure 
to the Duke of Ormonde, '* through whose courteous invitation 
the author had left his native soil to end the remainder of his 
days in this country" (2). The Earl of Essex, who came over 
as viceroy in 1672, and considered Dublin Castle unwhole- 
some, frequently stayed in the great house at Chapelizod. During 
his tenure of office the report on Dodson's work proved to be only 
too well founded, and large sums, although apparently less than 
were necessary, were spent upon the fabric. It was in Essex's 



0). " The Interest in Ireland of its Trade and Wealth, stated in two Parts," by 
Richard Lawrence (Dublin, 1 682) ; Lansdowne Manuscripts, 822, f. 270, in British 
Museum ; Carte Papers, vol. xxxvi., flF. 503, 521-525; vol. xxxvii. f. 553; vol. 
xlix., ti. 643-645 ; vol. 1., f. 88 ; vol. Ixvi., f. 323 ; vol. clx., f. 36 ; vol. ccxix, f. 452 ; 
Ormonde Manuscripts, N.S., vol. iii., passim, published by Historical Manuscripts 
Commission ; Will of Richard Lawrence ; Dictionary of National Bion-aDhy. vol. 
xxxiii., p. 273. S.J'' 

(2). " The Irish Spaw, being a Short Discourse on Mineral Waters in general, 
with a way of improving by Art weakly- impregnated Mineral Waters ; and a brief 
Account of the Mineral Waters at Chappel-izod near Dublin, by P. Bellon Dr in 
Physick." Dublin, 1684. 



CHAPELIZOD, 



173 



time that Colonel Lawrence surrendered the linen factory at 
Chapelizod, and the Duke of Ormonde, when he returned in 1677 
to take up the sword, found the factory leased to Alderman 
Christopher Lovett. Although the Duchess of Ormonde some- 
times grew weary of the surroundings, the Duke of Ormonde and 
his son Lord Arran found the house a pleasant retreat until, on 
the accession of James II., the Earl of Clarendon replaced them 
in the government. Clarendon and his Countess, who delighted in 
country life, intended to make it their principal abode, but the 
improvements, which they made, were destined to be of more ad- 
vantage to Tyrconnel, who was in occupation of the great house in 
1690 before the Battle of the Boyne, than to themselves. 

The event, from which the viceregal residence gained the name of 
the King's House, next took place upon the arrival there of William 
III. at the close of the month that had opened with his victory at 
the Boyne. The King was doubtless delighted to find himself once 
more in the midst of a Dutch garden, for in this style the Countess 
of Clarendon says the Chapelizod grounds were laid out, and he 
found the house, which had been not only improved but enlarged by 
Lord Clarendon, sufficiently capacious to admit of his holding a more 
or less formal court. In the succeeding years the Chief Governors 
continued to make use of the house. In 1693 Viscount Sydney speaks 
of the need of repairs, in 1696 Lord Capel died while residing there, 
in 1711 the second Duke of Ormonde is said *' to have kept much 
at Chapelizod not concerning himself with Qie proceedings of the 
Irish Parliament in Chichester House," and in 1714 during the 
viceroyalty of the Earl of Shrewsbury a pigeon house was erected 
and other improvements made (^). 

A favourite house of entertainment appears to have stood at the 
close of the seventeenth century in Chapelizod and to have been the 
meeting place of a Dublin club. In a somewhat obscure passage 
John Dunton tells us that he was wont to ramble out to Chapelizod 
to visit the Lord Clonuff, '' who as President of the illustrious 
house of Cabinteele" conferred honours like a prince and created 
as many as four noblemen in one day. The linen factory was still 



(1) Falkiner's " Illustrations of Irish History," pp. 63, 64 ; Carte Papers, vol, 
liii., f. 155, 157 ; vol. clxviii., f. 116 ; vol. ccxix, ff. 240. 252 ; vol. wxxxii., f. S*)!, 
SiDger's " Correspondence of Henry Earl of Clarendon," vol. i., pp. 237, 238, 407 ; 
vol. ii., p. 87 ; Calendar of Domestic State Papers, 1690-1691, pp. 233* 338 ; 
1693, p. 137 ; 30th Report of the'Deputy Keeper of the Records in Ireland. Add. 
pp., 48,60. ^^ 



174 PARISH OF CHAPELIZOD. 



carried on there by the Lovett family although they had been 
displaced for a time under James II. in favour of a Quaker called 
Bromfield, and twenty looms for linen were still working, besides 
others used in making tapestry. In the beginning of the 
eighteenth century the King's gardens attained a great celebrity 
and brought to Chapelizod rural artists of good position, such as 
Robert Wadeley, a native of Wales, who died there in 1711, and 
Charles Carter who describes himself in 1728 as '* His Majesty's 
gardener^' (i). 

The King's House was then seldom occupied by the Viceroys, 
who became more and more absentees, and on his arrival in 1726 as 
primate Archbishop Boulter was allowed the use of it as a country 
residence. His successor Archbishop Stone secured it for a time 
for his brother-in-law William Barnard, Bishop of Derry, who sub- 
sequently settled at Ranelagh, and in 1750 Mrs. Delany often 
dined with the Bishop, whose collection of pictures she much ad- 
mired, at *'that sweet pretty place" as she calls Chapelizod. After- 
wards we find John Garnett, Bishop of Ferns, in occupation. But a 
few years later, in 1758, it was decided to retain no longer the house 
for its original purpose, and to convert it into a barrack for the 
Irish artillery, then a separate corps from the English, on the Irish 
establishment. During the viceroyalty of the Earl of Hertford, in 
1765, we read that the Royal Regiment of Artillery was reviewed 
at Chapelizod by his son and chief secretary. Lord Beaucliamp, who 
was so satisfied with the performance that he gave the men ten 
guineas to drink the King's health. Towards the close of the 
eighteenth century, when the regiment was under the command of 
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Bettesworth who was long connected 
with it, the Chapelizod barrack is mentioned as a handsome build- 
ing well adapted for its purpose, and the King's garden is stated 
to have been given to the Hibernian School in the Phoenix Park 
which had shortly before been established (2). 



(*) Dunton's '* Dublin Scuffle," pp. 370, 422 ? Calendar of Domestic State 
Papers, 1690-1691, p. 338 ; 1691-1692, pp. 298, 322 ; Wills of Robert Wadeley and 
Charles Carter ; Dublin Intelligence, Dec. 14, 1728. 

. (*) Falkiner's "Illustrations of Irish History," pp. 64-66; Boulter's Letters 
vol, i., pp. 116, 122-; vol. ii., pp. 139-140 j Mrs. Delany's "Autobiography and 
Correspondence,*' vol. ii., pp. 503, 547, 552, 621, 625 ; Mrs. Stopford Sackville's 
Manuscripts, vol i., p. 212, published by Historical Manuscripts Coiumiasion ; 
SlecUer's Public Gazetteer, vol. ix., p. 90 ; Exshawa Magazine for 1774, p. 328 ; for 
1777, p. 632 ; for 1784, p. 744 ; Lewis' " Dublin Guide,'* p. 98. 



CHAPELIZOD. 175 

The village was, throughout the eighteenth century, as Mrs. 
Delany tells us, "a famous place for entertainment." When the 
meeting of Earliament in 1729 drew near and *'the candidates began 
to do more than distribute printed bills," the Dublin Intelligenas^ 
informs us that Mr. Summer ville treated about a hundred freemen 
at Chapelizod at a cost of two hundred pounds, with the result that 
*' a report passed current in discourse that only a native like him 
should represent the city." Amongst the well-known houses of 
entertainment were, in 1741 the '* Ship Tavern," and in 1760 the 
'* Three Tuns and Grapes," and the hosts included in 1741 John 
Dawson, who acquired in his business a large fortune and a fair charr 
acter; in 1760 John Ryan, whose entertainment, and not pompous 
advertisement, was- his recommendation ; and in 1787 Thomas 
Morris, who besides good cheer, advertises stabling for sixty horses 
(}) - The walk along the river Liffey from Island Bridge was then 
much valued, and about the year 1761 an attempt to close it was 
the subject of prolonged litigation which only ended in the English 
House of Lords (2). About that time an attempt was made to 
introduce silk weaving by planting mulberry trees, and William 
Conolly^ of Castletown planted also golden oziers along the Liffey 
bank (3). Wells of petrifying waters at Chapelizod were amongst 
the discoveries made by the diligent John Rutty, but there is no 
mention by him of the spa found by Dr. Bellon (^). The village 
then attracted many private residents, and there in 1747 died 
Richard White, then Mayor of Dublin; in 1754 the Rev. Walter 
Chamberlain, in 1761 Captain Richard Aylmer, a centenarian of 
a hundred and five, who had served under Charles the Second and 
James the Second ; and in 1776 Dr. Richard Reddy (5). 



(^) Dublin Intelligence^ Sept. 20, 1729 ; Pue's Occurrences^ Sept. 19-22> 1741 ; 
Sleaters Public Gazetteer^ vol. iv., pp. 107, 121 ; Lewis* " Dublin Guide," p. 98. 

(*) Ex»haw*8 Magazine for 1761, p. 287. 

(a) Dublin Journal, Feb. 26-Mar/ 2, 1750-1 ; Angers '' History of Ireland, '* 
vol. i., p. 109. 

(*) Rutty*s " Natural History of the County Dublin," vol, ii., p. 146. 

(5) Exshaws Magazine for 1747, p. 190 ; for 1754, p. 316 ; for 1761, p. 439; aod 
for 1776,. p. 820. 



176 PABISH OF CHAPELIZOD. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The present church at Chapelizod is a modern structure, but is 
attached to a tower of considerable antiquity, and there are two 
mural tablets within the building (i) and a large tomb in the 
churchyard (2) dating from the seventeenth century. 

The first reference to the Church of Chapelizod after the Anglo- 
Norman invasion states that the advowson was in possession of the 
Priory of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham. But subse- 
quently, in 1228, when Richard de Burgh the justiciary was 
tenant of the Chapelizod lands the King presented the justiciary's 
clerk, William de Rupe, to the church, which was then vacant, 
and in the following year a formal grant of the advowson to the 
Priory appears. Again in 1305 the Crown dealt with the manor 
and its mills and fisheries, which were then leased to one John de 
Selsby. After the dissolution of the Priory, the tithes and 
altarages, as well as the other possessions of the church, were 
leased to lay owners, including in 1574 one Jasper Horsey, and in 
1579 the newly-founded College of the Holy Trinity held some 
houses and lands which belonged to it (3). 

There is no information about the structure in the visitation of 
the early part of the seventeenth century, but the Commonwealth 
surveys mention a chapel in good repair, and towards the close of 



(i) The tablets bear the following inscriptions : — " I.H.S, Heaven hath ye 
souls and here lie ye bodies of Henry and Elizabeth Dr. James Hierom's virs and 
religs. wives, ye Ist born in Fra. died Dec. 29, 1670 ; ye 2nd in Irl. Oct. 23, 1675, 
and was Bp. Spotwood's daughter.'* " Here lyeth the body of Gyles Curwen who 
departed this life May ye 6th 1688 in ye 77th year of his age. Also Luci his wife 
who dept. July ye 10th 1689 and 2 of their Grandchildren who died in their 
infancy.'* 

(*) The tomb bears a coat of arms and the following inscription : — " This 
tomb was erected by John Low, gent, who was born at Bewdly in Worcestershire, 
and departed this life the 24 of April, 1638, and was here interred. Here also lie 
the bodies of Joan, wife of Major William Low, his son, who died the 30 of Septem. 

1677 ; Elizabeth, wife of Ebenezer Low, Esq. son of the sd William Low, who 
died ye 2 of January, 1677 ; Major William Low departed this life ye 2 of May, 

1678 ; Joan his daughter departed this life ye 20th of March, 1678 ; Lieu. George 
Low, second son of John Low, died ye 8 of July, 1681 ; Catherin, second wife of 
Ebenezer Low, died ye 8 of July, 1687 ; Ebenezer Low, Esq. repaired and enlarged 
this tomb, and departed this life ye 2nd of July, 1690. Here lie also the bodies of 
William, William, Klizabeth, Joan Low, Catherine Low, Ebenezer, John, Joseph 
son of [ — ]tin Cuppaidge, gent, by Mary his wife, daughter of Major William Low." 

(^) " Crede Mihi," edited br Sir John Gilbert, p. 138 ; Sweetman's Calendar, 
1171-1251, Nob. 1620, 1744 ; 'l302-1307, No. 397 ; Fiants Elizabeth, Nos. 2426, 
6123. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 177 

the eighteenth century the church which then existed is said to 
have been built about two hundred years. If not erected before, it 
was doubtless built by Lord Valentia, who appears to have been a 
good churchman, and possibly it was served by his chaplains the 
Rev. Robert Boyle and the Rev. George Cottingham, who became 
beneficed clergymen in Bishop Spottiswood's diocese (i). In 1639 
the Rev. Richard Matherson is returned as in charge of 
Chapelizod parish; in 1644 the Rev. Anthony Proctor, who was 
a prebendary of St. Patrick's Cathedral; and in 1646 the Rev. 
Richard Powell, who held a like dignity. 

After the Restoration in 1668 the Rev. James Hierome was 
presented by the King to the vicarage of Chapelizod. Hierome, who 
was a Huguenot, had previously been chaplain of the Savoy Chapel 
in London, and it is stated that the vicarage of Chapelizod was 
given to him in consideration of his having induced that congrega- 
tion to conform to the Church of England, as well as of his learn- 
ing, piety, and being a stranger. As part of his revenue he was given 
liberty to graze horses and cattle in the Phoenix Park, and he held 
in addition to Chapelizod dignities in St. Patrick's Cathedral and 
in the dioceses of Waterford and Lismore. His coming to 
Chapelizod may have had some connection with the arrival of the 
French workpeople, and in subsequent years we find him accom- 
panying Colonel Lawrence to the Duke of Ormonde's estates to 
advise about settlements there (2). He was twice married, his 
first wife being a Frenchwoman and his second a daughter of 
Bishop Spottiswood and half-sister of Sir Henry Spottiswood (3). 

The vicarage of Chapelizod was afterwards united to Castle- 
knock, and held during the eighteenth century by the prebendaries 
of that place. Amongst those in charge of the church, where 
in 1740 the famous Archbishop Stone was consecrated, were, 
in 1703, the Rev. John Twigg, with the Rev. Paul Twigg as 
curate; in 1735 the Rev. Jonathan Rogers; in 1741 the Rev. 
John Jourdan, with the Rev. James Hawkins, afterwards Bishop 
of Raphoe, as curate; in 1757, the Rev. Peter Sterne, with the 
Rev. Nathaniel Smith as curate; in 1764 the Rev. Kene Percival ; 
in 1774 the Rev. William Warren, with the Rev. Hugh O'Neill 



(1) Civil Survey of Castleknock ; Parliamentary Returns in Public Record 
OflSce ; " Life of Bishop Spottiswood." 

(2) Visitation Books ; Cotton's " Fasti Ecclesia Hibernicae," passim. 
(») See p. 176, note 1. 

N 



178 PARISH OF CHAPELIZOD. 



as curate; in 1812 the Rev. Hosea Guinness; in 1835 the Rev. 
William Wilcocks; in 1870 Rev. Albert Irwin M'Donagh; and 
in 1889 Rev. Amyrald Dancer Purefoy (i). 

The Roman Catholic Church has also long p>ossessed a place of 
worship in Chapelizod parish, which under the arrangement of that 
Church forms part of the union of Castleknock. In the parlia- 
mentary return of 1731 the existence of a " mass house" is men- 
tioned, and in the return of 1766 two Roman Catholic clergymen, 
Mr. Callaghan and Mr. Fair, are included amongst the residents. 



(^) Visitation Books. 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 179 



The Phcenix Park 

(i.e., Fionnuisge or clear water). 

♦ 

With the exception of a cromlech near the village of Chapelizod, there is not 
any object of archajological interest in the Phoenix Park (^). 



THE PHCENIX PARKO. 

The Phoenix Park, celebrated for the variety and beauty of its 
scenery and for its vast extent, although approached directly from 
the streets of Dublin, which it adjoins on the west, lies entirely 
within the Metropolitan county. It is said to contain an area 
about seven miles in circumference, and its lands form portions 
of the parishes of St. James, Chapelizod, and Castleknock. Within 
its bounds are now to be found lodges for the Lord Lieutenant, 
the Chief Secretary, and the Under-Secretary, the Royal Military 
Infirmary, the Barracks of the Ordnance Survey, the Hibernian 
Military School, the Magazine, and the Zoological Gardens. 

It was not until the Restoration period of the seventeenth cen- 
tury that the construction of the Phoenix Park was undertaken, 
but the origin of the selection of the lands which the Park con- 
tains for the purpose of a royal enclosure dates from much earlier 
times. It is to be found in the history of the lands which now 
form thei eastern portion of the Park, and are comprised in the 
parish of St. James. These lands, or a great part of them, had 
been given not long after the Anglo-Norman invasion by the 
Tyrrells, the lords of Castleknock, to the Priory of St. John of 
Jerusalem at Kilmainham, and belonged to that establishment at 
the time of its dissolution by Henry VIII. After the seizure of the 
possessions of the Priory by the Crown, its lands on the northern 
side of the Liffey appear divided ; the south-western part, on which 



(^) See Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academyy vol. i., p. 186. 

(*) In regard to this section of the history, the author desires to acknowledge his 
indebtedness to Mr. Litton Falkiner's historical ^say on the Pha3nix Park. See 
" Illustrations of Irish History and Topography/* by C. Litton Falkiner, London, 
1904, pp. 41-74. 

n2 



180 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCK. 



the Magazine is now situated, being retained in the Kilmainham 
demesne, and the north-eastern part, on which the Viceregal 
Lodge and the Zoological Gardens are now situated, being leased 
under the name of Newtown to a long succession of tenants. 
During the remainder of the sixteenth and early years of the 
seventeenth century the Kilmainham Priory was utilized by the 
Chief Governors of Ireland as a country residence, and was valued 
by them especially on account of its wide pastures, which they 
found ''a help towards housekeeping" as well as a source of 
pleasure. But James I. had not ascended the throne many years 
when he was induced to promise Sir Richard Sutton, one of the 
auditors of the Imprests in England, a grant of such portion of 
the Kilmainham demesne as lay on the northern side of the River 
Liffey. In spite of the protests of the Irish Lord Deputy of that 
time. Sir Arthur Chichester, this promise was made good, and 
Sir Edward Fisher, as assignee of Sir Richard Sutton, was in 1611 
leased some four hundred acres of the Kilmainham demesne, 
bounded on the south by the River Liffey and the high road to 
Chapelizod, on the east and north by the lands of Newtown and 
Ashtown, and on the west by the lands of Chapelizod, all of which 
lands are now included in the Phoenix Park. 

The erection of a house on his newly acquired property was at 
once undertaken by Sir Edward Fisher, and with taste rare in 
his day he selected as the site the ground on which the Magazine 
now stands. The prospect which that site commands is unrivalled 
in the neighbourhood, and it seems not improbable that the name 
Phoenix, by which the house became known, although generally 
supposed to be a corruption of Irish words meaning clear water, 
may have been conferred on the house owing to its magnificent 
situation. When making his protest against the grant to Sir 
Richard Sutton, the Lord Deputy had warned the King that be- 
fore long the lands would have to be bought back by the Crown ; 
and on the arrival of his successor. Sir Oliver St. John, afterwards 
Viscounty Grandison, his words came true. That Chief Governor 
found the Kilmainham Priory in a state of ruin, and longing for 
escape from the walls of Dublin Castle, his attention was attracted 
to the residence which had just been built on lands long enjoyed 
by his predecessors. His influence effected the reversal of a policy 
which Sir Arthur Chichester had been powerless to prevent, and 
in consideration of a sum of £2,500 Sir Edward Fisher sur- 
rendered in 1617 to the Crown the lands given to him only six 



^ 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 181 



years before, together with the house built by him, which was 
assigned by the King for the use of his representative in this 
country for the time being (i). 

After some alterations and additions had been made in the 
original structure as well as to oflBces, afterwards known as the 
wash-house, near Kilmainham Bridge, Lord Grandison took up 
his abode at *' His Majesty's house near Kilmainham, called the 
Phoenix," where we find him frequently transacting affairs of 
State and requiring the Privy Council to meet. He was succeeded 
in the Phoenix by Lord Falkland, by whom the formation of a 
deer-park was designed, and a deer-keeper, one William Moore, 
actually appointed. During the interval that elapsed before the 
arrival of the Earl of Strafford the Phoenix was occupied for a time 
by Viscount Ranelagh, probably by permission of the Lords Jus- 
tices, as we find him in the autumn of 1630 feasting one of them, 
the Earl of Cork, in his temporary dwelling. While his great 
mansion near Naas was building, the Earl of Strafford was forced 
to make use of the Phoenix, but speaks contemptuously of a 
country seat where a partridge was unknown, and longed for a 
more exciting pastime than flying hawks after blackbirds, although 
he says it provided excellent sport, and attracted as many as two 
hundred mounted spectators to the Park. Preparations were 
made at the Phoenix for the reception of the Earl of Leicester on 
his appointment as Lord Lieutenant, but he never came to this 
country, and it is doubtful whether his successor, the Duke of 
Ormonde, was able to make use of the house during the troublous 
times that attended his first Viceroyalty (2). 

The Phoenix passed into the hands of the authorities of the 
Parliament, in 1647, on the surrender of Dublin by Ormonde, but 
before his first encounter with the forces of the Commonwealth at 
Rathmines, Ormonde seized the house, which was delivered to him 
without any attempt at resistance, on the ground that it was a 
possession of small military importance. But it seems to have 
been afterwards garrisoned by a detachment of the Royalist Army, 



(}) Plea Roll, 2 Edw. II. ; Fiants Elizabeth, passim; Calendar of Irish State 
Papers, 1608-10, p. 333 ; Patent Rolls, Jac. I., pp. 203, 341. 

(«) Calendar Irish State Papers, 1615-1625, pp. 246, 258, 311, 429 ; 1625-1632, 
p. 648 ; 1633-1637, p. 302 ; Lismore Papers, Ser. i., vol. iii., p. 50 ; Strafford's 
Letters, vol. i., p. 162. 



■^' 



182 PABISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCE. 

and not to have been regained after Ormonde's defeat at Rath- 
mines without some effort on the part of his victor, Colonel Michael 
Jones. After the Commonwealth was established a grant of the 
Phoenix to Sir Jerome Sankey, a prominent oflBcer in the army of 
the Parliament, was considered, but finally the Chief Governor, 
General Charles Fleetwood, took up his residence there, and was 
succeeded by Henry Cromwell. Cromwell, who resided constantly 
at the Phoenix, added a large wing to the house, several stories 
in height, and, in what is described as his very stately dwelling, 
extended much hospitality not only to his own party but also to 
supporters of the Royal cause, who found at the Phoenix a wel- 
come, and much freedom Q). 

After the Restoration the Phoenix underwent further enlarge- 
ment and improvement. At the close of the year 1661, the Duke 
of Ormonde, who had some time previously been appointed Lord 
Lieutenant for the second time, and hoped soon to come to Ire- 
land, wrote to Lord Chancellor Eustace asking his advice as to 
whether he should stay at the Phoenix or Dublin Castle, the 
former, according to his recollection, was small, and would be in- 
convenient on account of its distance from Dublin; but, on the 
other hand, he thought it desirable to leave Dublin Castle empty 
for the summer in order that necessary repairs might be carried 
out. As we have seen under Chapelizod, Eustace advised 
Ormonde's coming to the Phoenix, and his brother Lord Justice, 
the Earl of Orrery, who was in temporary occupation of the house, 
was soon deep in plans for building a new hall and stable, which 
Ormonde considered indispensable. It was decided that a wing 
should be built corresponding to the one erected by Henry Crom- 
well, and that it should contain a chapel as well as a hall. At 
first this wing was to be only one story high, but provision was to 
be made for its ultimate elevation to the same height as the other. 
In addition, plans were approved for a stable, which Orrery ar- 
ranged should be near the house, on account of Ormonde's love 



(^) Carfce Papers, vol. XXV., f. 35 ; "AHiatory or Brief Chronicle of the Chief 
Matters of the Irish Warres, with a perfect Table or List of all the Victories 
obtained by the Lord General Cromwell " (Lond., 1650), in The Thorpe Tracts pre- 
served in the National Library of Ireland ; Thurloe's State Papers, vol. iii., p. 697 ; 
vol. vi., p. 658 Down Survey Map ; Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1647-1660, 
p. 635. 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 



183 




S 



184 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CA8TLEKN0CK. 



of horses, and frequent disablement from attacks of gout, and an 
expenditure of sixteen hundred pounds, under the direction of 
Dr. J. Westley, then the surveyor of public buildings, was 
authorised (i). 

It was on Ormonde's arrival in this country, in August, 1662, 
that the construction of the PhoBnix Park was begun. To one 
coming direct from the palaces of England and the splendours of the 
Restoration court, the Phoenix and its demesne must have indeed 
seemed, as Ormonde says, narrow, and little suited to the dignity 
of the King's representative. In matters affecting his royal 
master's honour, as in his opinion this did, Ormonde was jealous 
to a fault, and to remedy the imperfections of the Viceregal 
residence was one of his first objects. It was not usual at that 
period to count the cost until the accounts were to be paid, and 
as has been mentioned under Chapelizod, Ormonde had not 
landed in Ireland more than a few weeks when he had determined 
on a scheme for a deer-park, which ultimately involved enormous 
expense. At first it was proposed that the Park should include 
the lands originally comprised in the demesne of the Kilmainham 
Priory, viz., the lands of Kilmainham, Island Bridge, and Inchi- 
core, on the southern side of the Liffey, and the lands attached 
to the Phoenix House, and the townland of Newtown, on the north- 
ern side of the Liffey, with the addition of a portion of the lands of 
Chapelizod. Afterwards the original design was extended, and 
the remainder of the lands of Chapelizod, together with those of 
Ashtown, on which the Under-Secretary's Lodge now stands, in 
the parish of Castleknock, and several smaller holdings, were en- 
closed in the Park. 

The whole of the Park was to be surrounded by a wall, and 
within a few months of Ormonde's arrival, William Dodson, 
already mentioned in connection with Chapelizod, had begun its 
erection. No supervision was exercised over him, and during the 
years • 1663 and 1664 he was advanced without question sums 
amounting to six thousand pounds. Towards the close of the year 
1664, the new walls were found to be broken in a dozen different 
places, and, although it was sought to attribute these disasters to 
the effect of storms of unusual severity, the Earl of Ossory, then 



(^) Ormonde Papers, New Series, vol. iii., p. 385, published by Historical 
Manuscripts Commission ; Carte Papers, vol. xxxi., ff. 373, 375 r vol. xxziii., f. 3 ; 
vol. xlix., f. 90 ; vol. clix., f. 206 ; State Papers of Roger Earl of Orrery (Lend., 
1742), pp. 21, 31. 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 



185 



acting as Lord Deputy in his father's absence, began to entertain 
suspicions of Dodson's integrity. These suspicions were excited 
not only by the breaks in the wall, but also by Dodson's failure 
to complete the work at the time promised, and his desire to post- 
pone further operations until the spring. A few months later 
an appalling report was sent to Ormonde, in which it was stated 
that owing to the bad stone used, and want of skill on the part 
of the workmen, the wall was daily falling down, and that the 
gaps, which had been filled with furze and thorns, amounted in 
length to no less than a hundred perches. At this juncture 
Dodson, unfortunately for himself, made a proposal to keep the 
walls in repair for a hundred pounds a year, and some years later 
lost any credit that he then possessed on its being discovered that he 
had sub -let the prospective contract to his workmen for thirty 
pounds a year. 

When the Duke of Ormonde surrendered the office of Lord 
Lieutenant, in 1669, the cost of the Phoenix Park amounted to 
over £31,000, and the total expenditure upon it ultimately ex- 
ceeded £40,000. '' The greatness of this charge and the ill-making 




A Lodge in the Phoenix Parle in i795« 

From a plate by F. Juices. 

of the wall " brought on Ormonde much adverse criticism, and to 
*' the clamours of ill-affected people" were added the just com- 
plaints of the former owners of the lands about delay in the pay- 
ment of the purchase money. During the Viceroy alty of the Earl 



186 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCK. 



of Essex the Park, the subject of so much care and solicitude on 
Ormonde's part, was on the point of being wrested from its 
original purpose and given by Charles II. to a private owner, in 
the person of the Duchess of Cleveland. It was only by the com- 
bined efforts of Essex and Ormonde that this grant was stopped, 
and the intervention of Ormonde was again necessary a few years 
later to prevent the alienation of the Park to another royal 
favourite, although this time of the male sex (i). 

The Park was then not only used by the Viceroy as a place of 
recreation — without it Essex said he would have had to live like 
a prisoner — but it was also much frequented by the Irish nobility 
and gentry when resident in Dublin. It had been laid out before 
that time, and was provided, in addition to roads, with what was 
known as a ** bare," to the construction of which part of the Vice- 
regal garden had been sacrificed, and with artificial water. It 
had also been stocked with deer, with partridges, and with 
pheasants. To, procure these no expense had been spared. Two 
oflBcers had been sent to England to purchase and transport the 
deer, while another had been sent to North Wales to trap the 
partridges, and the Earl of Ossory himself had superintended the 
capture of the pheasants on his father's estate near Arklow. The 
preservation of the game in the Park was then entrusted to three 
keepers, one of whom was dignified with the superior office of 
ranger. They were men of high position, and delegated their 
duties to subordinates, who found their task no easy one on 
account of the defective walls, the ravages of vermin, and the 
depredations of poachers. Writing in 1668, Colonel Edward Cooke, 
who was one of the keepers of the Park, as well as a Commissioner 
under the Act of Settlement, says that the deer were escaping less 
frequently than they had done previously owing to care in keeping 
the walls repaired, but that other kinds of game had suffered 
greatly. Foxes, which had abounded, were nearly exterminated, 
but kites and poachers, who were generally soldiers from the Dublin 
garrison, carried off all the partridges (2). 



( ) Carte Papers, vol. xxxiii., f. 714 ; vol. xxxvii., f. 553 ; vol. cxlvi., f. 231 ; 
vol. chx., f. 206 ; vol. clxv., passim; vol. ccxx., ff. 185, 187 ; Ormonde Papers, New 
beries, vol. lii., passim, published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; Essex 
Papers, vol. i., passim, published by Camden Society. 

(2) Carte Papers, vol. clxiv., f. 17 ; vol. ccxv., f. 136 ; vol. ccxx., ff. 177, 181, 213 ; 
Ormonde Papers, New Series, vol. iii., p. 293, published by Historical Manuscripts 
Commission. 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 187 



The Phoenix House, although then rated as containing, with 
the adjacent wash-house, thirty hearths, proved soon to be quite 
inadequate for the accommodation of the Duke of Ormonde's 
household, and was deserted by him in favour of the larger 
mansion at Chapelizod, as related in the history of that place. 
For a time the Phoenix House was considered a convenient lodg- 
ment for Ormonde's rider, falconers, and bailiffs, but in the 
summer of 1664 he desired them to vacate it, and gave the middle 
story, with the exception of a small part of the gallery, to Colonel 
John Jeffreys. Colonel Jeffreys, who was a Welshman, was then 
acting as a messenger between the Irish Parliament and the 
English Privy Council, and subsequently became constable of 
Dublin Castle. He was well known to oflBcials in England, and 
stood high in their regard, as appears from a correspondence about 
his daughter, who married without her father's sanction one of 
the Justices of the Common Pleas, Arthur Turner, and was left on 
her husband's untimely death, two years after his appointment, 
without provision of any kind. When Lord Robartes came to 
succeed the Duke of Ormonde as Lord Lieutenant, in 1669, it was 
suggested by the Duchess of Ormonde that Colonel Jeffreys should 
be asked to lend the Phoenix House, with his furniture, to her 
son. Lord Arran, while the transfer of the sword was effected ; and 
some years later Colonel Jeffreys appears to have made room for 
Lord Berkeley, who succeeded Lord Robartes in the government 
of Ireland, and whom we find inditing a letter from the 
Phoenix (l). 

Besides the Phoenix House two other residences of considerable 
size, which the Government had acquired with the lands, then 
lay within the Park. One of these, a castle, stood on the ground 
now occupied by the Under-Secretary's Lodge, and some portion 
of it is still to be found incorporated in the modern structure. It 
had been purchased with the lands of Ashtown. These lands, 
which formed part of the manor of Castleknock, had been held 
before the dissolution of the religious houses by the Hospital of St. 
John without Newgate, already noticed as owner of the adjacent 
lands of Palmerston. Of the occupation of the members of the 
Priory trace remains, not alone in deeds, but also in a tradition 



(^) Hearth Money Roll ; Carte Papers, vol. cxlv., f. 15 ; Ormonde Papers, New 
Series, vol. iii., passinij published by Historical Manuscripts Commission ; Journal 
of the Cork Historical and Archceological Society^ Ser. 2, vol. vii., p. 226 ; Essex 
Papers in British Museum, Stowe Manuscripts, vol. 200} f. 104. 



188 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCK. 



which has given the name of the monks' trees to a grove near 
their old dwelling. At the time of the formation of the Park 
the Ashtown lands were in possession of one John Connell, and 
besides the castle contained two thatched houses and an orchard. 
After their purchase by the Government, in 1664, Sir William 
Flower, an ancestor of the Viscounts Ashbrook, who was the 
second keeper, with Colonel Edward Cooke, of the Park, was 
directed to possess himself of Ashtown castle as his lodging, but 
possibly assigned it to a trusty servant, to whom he was permitted 
to transfer his duty of walking the Park, and preventing the 
spoil and embezzlement! of the vert or venison (i). 

The third residence at that time within the Park was a house 
which stood on the lands of Newtown. This house lay not far 
from the present Dublin entrance, and was in unpleasant 
proximity to a ghastly object — the gallows for executions within 




The Magazine In 1795* 

Prom a plate by P. Jukes. 

the county — which as already mentioned stood on the ground now 
occupied by Parkgate Street. The house first appears, in 1646, as 
the home of Henry Jones, a relation of the Popping family, and a 
devoted admirer of Queen Elizabeth, whose arms were engraved on 
a much-cherished cocoa-nut set in silver ; and towards the close of 



(^) Patent Rolls, p. 187 ; Civil Survey of Castleknock ; Carte Papers, vol. clxv., 
f. 193. 



A 



THE PH(ENIX PARK. 189 



the Commonwealth it was occupied by Captain Roger Bamber, 
whom we find subsequently in charge of the Duke of Ormonde's 
hawks. After the formation of the Park this house was assigned to 
Marcus Trevor, Viscount Dungannon, who was appointed ranger of 
the Park and keeper of the Newtown portion, and some years later 
it was utilized for the purposes of an entrance which was then 
made from Dublin. Near this entrance there were a dairy and 
dog-house, where one Plumer, in the Duke of Ormonde's time, 
looked after a large kennel, and probably it was when these 
buildings were erected that the gallows was moved, as already 
stated, to a more retired position near Kilmainham (i). 

Some years after the formation of the Park a proposal was 
under consideration to change its name to Kingsborough Park, 
and to provide it with an additional ofl&cer in the person of the 
Earl of Ossory, who was to be called Lieutenant of the Park and 
Master of the Game. He was to have the Chapelizod house as his 
residence, with its lands, as his charge, and they were henceforth 
to be called Kingsborough Lodge and Walk. It was also pro- 
vided under this scheme that the Newtown, Kilmainham, and 
Ashtown portions of the Park, with the residences provided for 
their keepers, should from that time be known respectively as 
Dungannon's Walk and Lodge, Cooke's Walk and Lodge, and 
Flower's Walk and Lodge. But the proposal was never carried 
out, and Lord Dungannon continued the chief ofl&cer in charge of 
the Park until his death. He was succeeded as ranger by a suc- 
cession of persons, who seem to have been chosen more as royal or 
viceregal favourites than as persons with knowledge and fitness to 
discharge the duties, and it is probable that the care of the Park 
in their time devolved altogether on subordinate oflficials (2). 

The establishment of the Royal Hospital, in 1680, involved a 
great reduction in the portion of the Park on the southern side 
of the Liffey, and it was then decided that the Park should be 
brought within its present limits, with the high road to Chapelizod 
as its southern boundary. The exclusion of the road was most 
desirable, as its passage through the Park had resulted in the 



(1) Down Survey Map ; Will of Henry Jones ; Census of 1659 ; Ormonde 
Papers, New Series, vol. iii., p. 191, published by Historical Manuscripts Commis- 
sion ; Hearth Money Rolls ; Carte Papers, vol. clx., f. 52. 

(^) Manuscript in possession of the Marquess of Ormonde; Liber Munerum' 
pt. ii., p. 91. 



190 FABISHES OF ST.- JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCE. 



loss of many deer, and tbe construction of a new boundary wall 
was greatly facilitated by an offer to build it in exchange for little 
more than the strip of land between the road and the river. This 
offer came from Sir John Temple, the eminent Solicitor-General 
of Ireland, who was then using the road each day to approach his 
residence at Palmerston, and the Government gladly accepted an 
arrangement which made but small call on the Treasury. Although 
the erection of walls is not generally undertaken by lawyers, 
Temple proved a much more efficient contractor than Dodson, and 
finished the wall to the complete satisfaction of everyone con- 
cerned (^). This curtailment of the Park left no excuse for the 
Kilmainham keepership, but so agreeable a sinecure was not al- 
lowed to die, and a new charge was carved out instead of it under 
the name of the Castleknock Walk. 

The official residences in the Park in the opening years of the 
eighteenth century were the Phoenix House, Ashtown Castle or 
Lodge, a lodge for the keeper of the Newtown Walk, and a lodge 
for the keeper of the Castleknock Walk. The Phoenix House 
was occupied by members of the Viceregal household, and Ashtown 
Castle by Sir Charles Fielding, the keeper of the Ashtown Walk, 
who was succeeded on his death, in 1722, by the Right Hon. 
Benjamin Parry. The ranger and keeper of the Newtown Walk, 
whose lodge seems to have stood on the ground now occupied by 
the Zoological Gardens, . was Sir Thomas Smith, an English 
baronet, who appears however to have resided in this country (2), 
and the keeper of the Castleknock Walk was Sir Alexander 
Cairnes, a baronet and banker in London, who figures in Swift's 
Journal to Stella as a Scot and a fanatic (3). Besides these houses 
there was on the lands of Newtown, near the wall of the Park, 
another in the occupation of the Surgeon-General of the Army in 
Ireland, Thomas Proby. It stood near the dog-kennel, and as 
his canine neighbours caused him much annoyance, Proby was 
given a lease of the site on condition that he built a new kennel 
elsewhere and kept the Viceregal household supplied with ice, 
presumably from the pond now enclosed in the People's Gardens. 



(1) Manuscript in possession of the Marquess of Ormonde. 

(*) G. E. C.'s " Complete Baronetage," vol. iii., p. 191 ; Dublin Journal. June 
24, 1732. 

(3) G. E. C.'s " Complete Baronetage," vol. v., p. 7 ; Swift's Works, edited by 
Sir Walter Scott, vol. ii., p. 308, et passim ; British Museum MSS., No. 22, 221, 
f. 201 ; No. 15,866, f. 195. 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 



191 



Swift, in his diatribe against Lord Wharton, includes an over- 
bearing attempt to deprive Proby of this lease, and says that 
Proby was a man universally and deservedly beloved by the Irish 
people. He was a native of Dublin, born soon after the Restora- 
tion in the old Inns, whose site the Four Courts occupy, and 
carried on his professional labours in a house on Ormond's Quay. 
While still a young man he gained much fame by an operation 
which attracted the attention of all Dublin from the Viceroy, 









■■Jl 


^L 


J ^'m -^^^^kw J 


'^^ '^e0^ m 


M 


^a^BH^ stki f~l A ^ 


^V *-l 




^B^M 





The Salute Battery In 1795. 

From a plate hy F. Juhes. 



Lord Capel, downwards, and at the time of the foundation of Dr. 
Steevens' Hospital he was a foremost practitioner. To that institu- 
tion he was devotedly attached, and in its chapel he desired to 
be buried. Proby was married to a clever lady, remarkable as an 
early collector of coins and china, '* whose plaguy wisdom" Swift 
was afraid might infect Stella, and left, on his death in 1729, a 
son, an ofl&cer in the army, and a daughter, whose husband, John 
Nichols, was a member of Proby's profession and succeeded him in 
his office, and also in occupation of his house at Newtown Q). 

As a fashionable place of recreation the Park then enjoyed 
great renown. It is said to have far exceeded in beauty the London 



(1) Swift's Works, edited by Sir Walter Scott, passim ; Will of Thomas Proby ; 
Bodleian MS. 10,794, f. 68 ; British Museum MS. 31,763. 



192 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCK. 



parks of that period by one who knew them well, the accomplished 
Mrs. Delany ; and on seeing the Park for the first time on her 
visit to Dublin in 1731, that lady breaks into rapturous praise 
of its attractions. Its large extent, its fine turf, and its agree- 
able prospects are in turn mentioned, and to crown all a ring 
in the midst of a delightful wood, '* the resort of the beaux and 
belles in fair weather," is described. This wood, which was in- 
tersected with glades, appears to have been swept away by the Earl 
of Chesterfield in the course of the improvements which he carried 
out during his Viceroy alty, and in addition to planting the Park 
with elms he laid out the site of the wood like a garden with 
plots and walks, and erected in the centre of what had been the 
ring the well-known Phoenix monument. 

A few years after Mrs. Delany's visit to the Park the Phoenix 
House was pulled down, and on its site was built the Magazine, 
whose erection gave opportunity to Swift for a last sarcasm. To 
the Park as a military outpost and exercise ground the authorities 
of that period seem to have devoted much attention. The con- 
struction of an arsenal within the Park's bounds had been con- 
templated twenty years before the Magazine was built, and the 
scheme was only abandoned on account of '* the extraordinary 
charge " it would have involved. Besides the Magazine a for- 
tification known as the Star fort was actually made in proximity 
to its site, and a building for the purpose of firing salutes was 
also erected about the same time where the Wellington monument 
now stands. It was a review that occasioned Mrs. Delany's first 
visit to the Park, and she tells, just as one would of a review 
to-day, how the Dublin garrison, consisting of a regiment of horse 
and two of foot, paraded before the wife of the Lord Lieutenant 
and all '* the beau monde " of Dublin, who attended in full 
state. In the absence of the Lord Lieutenant one of the Lords 
Justices sometimes supplied his place on these occasions, as, for 
instance, the Earl of Kildare who, while acting as one of the 
Chief Governors in 1757, held, with the assistance of the Earl of 
Rothes and a galaxy of general oflBcers, a review of exceptional 
brilliancy (i). 



(18) Mrs. Delany's " Autobiography and Correspondence,'* vol. i., p. 294 ; 
" Phoenix Park," by James Ward, in " A Miscellany of Poems," Dublin, 1718, pre- 
served in the Royal Irish Academy ; " Utopia," a poem on Lord Chesterfield, in 
Gentleman's Magazine for 1748, p. 399 ; British Museum MS. 31,763 ; Rocque's 
Map of the Environs of Dublin ; Rambles in the County Dublin, by F. Jukes ; 
Castlereagh Correspondence, vol. i., p. 190 ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1757, p. 272. 



THE PH(ENIX PARK. 193 



The disappearance of the Phoenix House left the Park without 
any great residence, but before long two important houses, which 
are still standing, were erected. One of these was the house now 
known as the Mountjoy Barracks, the headquarters in Ireland of 
the Ordnance Survey. It was built in the portion of the Park 
comprised in the Castleknock Walk, and is first mentioned as the 
country residence of the Right Hon. Luke Gardiner, who succeeded 
to the Castleknock keepership in 1728. To that position he was ap- 
pointed at the request of its former holder Sir Alexander Cairnes. 
Although little is now known of him, Gardiner, who held for many 
years the office of Deputy Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, was in his 
day a man of great weight in this country, and is spoken of by 
Mrs. Delany as the famous Luke Gardiner. He appears to have 
been the engineer of his own fortunes, but rapidly acquired wealth 
and influence. In recommending him for a Privy Councillorship 
Archbishop Boulter speaks of him as a thorough man of business, 
and contemporary opinion held him to be the best financier Ireland 
had known. He married a granddaughter of the first Viscount 
Mountjoy of the Stuart creation, when she was little more than a 
child, and his son, the Right Hon. Charles Gardiner, who suc- 
ceeded him on his death in 1755 as keeper of the Castleknock 
Walk and occupant of the Lodge, inherited much of the property 
of the Stuart family. The latter was succeeded in the Park by 
his son, Luke Gardiner, who, having served as one of the knights 
of the shire for the County Dublin, was created a peer as Baron 
and Viscount Mountjoy, and was killed in 1798 while gallantly 
leading some troops against the insurgents in the County Wexford. 
During his time a theatre, which was admired alike for its exquisite 
design and style of decoration, was added to the Castleknock 
Lodge. In this theatre in the year 1778 the tragedy of '' Macbeth " 
and the farce of **The Citizen" were acted with great applause before 
the Viceroy and an assemblage of the first people in Ireland — the 
principal parts being taken by Gardiner and his wife, who were 
no less celebrated for their good looks than for their talent as 
actors; Robert Jephson, the dramatist, who has been already 
noticed as a resident at Seapoint ; and Sir Alexander Schomberg, 
the Commander of the Royal yacht (}). 



(}■) Liber Muuerum, pt. ii., p. 91 ; Boulter's Letters, passim ; Mrs. Delany's 
"Autobiography and Correspondence," vol. iii., p. 551; G. E. C.'s "Complete 
Peerage," vol. v., p. 403 ; Wills of the Gardiners ; Hibernian Magazine for 1778, 
pp. 53, 193, 249, 313 ; Charlemont Manuscripts, vol. i», pp. 70, 337, published by 
Historical Manuscripts Commission. 



194 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCK. 

The second residence erected after the disappearance of the 
Phoenix House was one which is now incorporated in the Viceregal 
Lodge. It was built by the Right Hon. Nathaniel Clements, 
ancestor of the Earls of Leitrim, who served with Gardiner in 
the Treasury and succeeded to his ofl5ce. In 1750 Clements was 
appointed ranger of the Park and keeper of the Newtown Walk, 
and followed the example of his colleague in building a country 
house for hims€»lf within the limits of his charge. It is described as 
originally a plain brick bulding, with oflSces projecting on each 
side and connected with it by circular sweeps, and its gardens and 
grounds seem to have been then its chief attraction. Clements 
was a man of ability who could hold his own against that con- 
summate diplomatist and statesman, Archbishop Stone, and was 
privileged to approach the great Duke of Newcastle on friendly 
terms ; but he is now better known on account of the magnificence 
of his establishment and of the Parisian luxury in which he in- 
dulged. To his reputation in the latter respect his wife con- 
tributed to a large degree, and, according to Mrs. Delany, ''she 
was finer then the finest lady in England — dress, furniture, house, 
equipage, excelling all, and Mr. Clements was — her husband." 
At his house in the Park, which he occupied until his death in 
1777, we find Clements annually celebrating the birthday of George 
the Third with a great display of fireworks and illuminations, and 
distributing, when want visited the country, whole carcasses of beef 
with regal profusion to his poorer neighbours (i). 

The Hibernian Military School was also erected during this 
period in the portion of the Park near Chapelizod. The founda- 
tion stone of the school was laid with much ceremony by the 
Lords Justices in 1766, and the foundation stone of the chapel in 
1771. It had been originally intended that the school should 
occupy a lower site, but on the advice of Proby's son-in-law, John 
Nichols, who was consulted on the ground that he had been a 
resident in the Park nearly all his life, the present position was 
selected (2). Nichols was then first surgeon to Steevens' Hospital 



(i) " Henrietta-street," by J. P. Prendergast, in The Irish Times, Dec. 26, 
1887 ; Milton's "Views in Ireland," p. 1 ; The English Historical Review ior 190^, 
pp. 508-542. and 735-765 ; Newcastle Papers in British Museum, passim, under 
Nathaniel Clements ; Mrs. Delany's *• Autobiography and Cori^espondence,** vol. i., 
p. 342; vol. iii., pp. 551, 565; Pue's Occurrences, Oct. 1-4, 1757; Exshat/s 
Magazine for 1761, p. 286 ; for 1767, p. 256 ; for 1777, p. 440 ; Stealer's PuUic 
Gazetteer, vol. vi., p. 594 ; vol. ix., p. 258. 

(^) Exshaivs Magazine for 1766, p. 651 ; Pve's Occurrences, May 11-14, 1771. 



THE PHCENIX PARK. 



195 




1 



1^ 



•^ 'xs 



H 



^ 
^ 



196 PARISHES OF ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZOD, AND CASTLEKNOCK. 



and to the Hospital for Incurables, as well as Surgeon-General of 
the Irish Army; but before a year had elapsed in 1767, his death 
is announced as taking place at his house in the Park (}). About 
that time Ashtown Castle was modernised and became the resid- 
ence of the Right Hon. Robert Cunningham, who was afterwards 
created Lord Rossmore, with special remainder to his wife's rela- 
tions, the Westenras. He was granted the use of Ashtown Castle by 
Lord George Sackville, who then held the office of Keeper of the 
Ashtown Walk, and towards the close of the eighteenth century he 
was given a pension of no less than three hundred a year in con- 
sideration of the money spent by, him as Deputy-Keeper in build- 
ing additions to Ashtown Lodge and in improving and enclosing 
its grounds (2). 

Notwithstanding the residence of the high officials who have 
been mentioned within its limits, the Phoenix Park was in their 
time greatly neglected, and is said to have been treated more as 
a common than as a Royal enclosure. So much had this become 
the case that during the Viceroyalty of the Earl of Harcourt, in 
1774, a movement was set on foot to contest the right of the 
Crown to exercise any control over its property. This claim gave 
convenient excuse for the establishment of another sinecure office 
in connection with the Park, and on the ground that it would 
prevent '* any inconveniences which might arise from a supposed 
acquiescence in the present clamorous usurpation," the office of 
BailiflF, hitherto held by a subordinate, was conferred on Sir John 
Blaquiere, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, with liberty to en- 
close portion of the Park for a residence for himself. Blaquiere, 
who was Lord Harcourt's friend as well as secretary, is a notable 
example of the acquisitive official, and it is said that in four short 
years of office he managed to secure an income for life of £6,000 
a year, besides the Order of the Bath, and promises which resulted 
in a peerage. His appointment as bailiflF was not his least agree- 
able acquisition. It is true that he had to act as defendant in a 
lawsuit, and although successful to endure no little ridicule, but 
as a reward, in addition to being given a good salary and various 
perquisites, the small Lodge enjoyed by his predecessor was en- 
larged for him into the excellent house now known as the Chief 



(1) Hoey's Duhlin Mercury, Jan. 17-20, 1767 ; Will of John Nichols. 

(2) Liber Munerum, pt. iii., p. 106 G. E. C.'s " Complete Peerage," vol. vi., 
p. 431. 



THE PHCENIX l^ARK. 197 



Secretary's Lodge, and some forty acres of land were substituted 
in his favour for a small garden (i). 

The Viceregal residence at Chapelizod, as we have seen in the 
history of that place, had been surrendered on account of the Lords 
Lieutenants being only resident in this country while the Irish 
Parliament was in session ; but later on in the eighteenth century, 
when they remained in Ireland during their whole term of office, 
the Viceroys found that a country house was a necessity, and 
that they were obliged to supply the place of their discarded 
dwelling by taking such houses as could be obtained temporarily 
in the neighbourhood of Dublin. This arrangement was attended 
with much inconvenience, and in order to obviate it, in the year 
1782, Mr. Clement's house, since known as the Viceregal Lodge, 
was purchased from his representatives for £10,000 by the Govern- 
ment, for the use of the Lord Lieutenant for the time being. It 
had, however, only intermittent popularity during the remainder 
of the eighteenth century as a Viceregal residence. At one time 
it was proposed to get rid of it altogether as a handsome gift to 
Henry Grattan, and the Viceroys seem never to have lost an 
opportunity of escaping from it to Mr. Lee's villa at Seapoint, 
or other more attractive dwelling. To its unpopularity the 
neglected state of the Park, which Sir John Blaquiere's appoint- 
ment had done nothing to remedy, contributed, and the fact that 
the death of the Duke of Rutland in 1787 took place at the Lodge 
also for a time threw a shade over it. But the most important 
reason for its unpopularity was probably the fact that no attempt 
was made to fit it in an adequate manner for its new occupants, 
and it was not until after the Union that it was enlarged to its 
present size by the addition of wings, and embellished by the 
construction of the well-known south front with its Ionic columns 
designed by Francis Johnston (2). 

The purchase of the Viceregal Lodge was followed by the 
extinction of the other private interests in the Park. This course 
seems to have been adopted largely on the initiative of William 



O " The Harcourt Papers," edited by Edward W. Harcourt, vol. ix., p. 237, 
et pcLSsim ; Hibernian Magazine for 1781, p. 543 ; Exshaw's Magazine for 1775, 
p. 213. 

(*) Exshaws Magazine for 1788, p. 503; for 1789, p. 333; Brewer's "Beauties 
of Ireland," vol. i., p. 202. 



198 PARISHES OP ST. JAMES, CHAPELIZODj AND CASTLEKNOCK. 

Eden, afterwards Lord 'Auckland, who then held the oflBce of 
Chief Secretary. On his arrival in this country Eden had 
obtained for himself the use of the Under-Secretary's house, then 
known as Ashtown Lodge, and henceforth exerted himself as 
strenuously to improve the condition of the Park as Sir John 
Blaquiere had done to promote his own interests. Under the 
care of that worthy the Park was made the scene of orgies . almost 
approaching those of Donnybrook Fair, the turf was overstocked, 
and the roads never repaired. Eden arrived at the conclusion that 
to terminate this state of things Blaquiere's control must be 
brought to an end, and proposed that he should be bought out 
and his Lodge granted to the Chief Secretary for the time being as 
an official residence. This was done, and at the same time Ash- 
town Lodge was assigned in a similar way to the Under Secretary. 
The Castleknock Lodge was about the same time purchased from 
Lord Mount joy, who then lost his first wife and probably no 
longer cared to reside in it, and was used as a cavalry barracks 
until the staflF of the Ordnance Survey took up their quarters 
in it. Some difficulty was found in gaining possession of the 
latter lodge from Lord Arran, who was in temporary occupation 
of it, but finally this was achieved, and the only private interest 
left was in the Newtown Lodge on the site of the Zoological 
Gardens, which was then in the occupation of ohe Bishop of 
Limerick, of whom mention has been made under Old Connaught, 
and subsequently of a Mrs. Talbot. 

The only additional building erected in the Park before the 
close of the eighteenth century was the Royal Military Infirmary 
the foundation stone of which was laid in 1786 by the Duke oi 
Rutland (2), and the further changes which have been effected by 
the laying out of the Zoological Gardens and the erection of 
various memorials belong to the history of the nineteenth century, 
and are outside the scope of the present work. 



{^) Exshavjs Magazine for 1781, p. 448 ; for 1787, p. 165 ; Plans of the Phoenix 
Park in the British Museum : Official Correspondence in Public Record Office, under 
date July 9, 1787 ; "A Month's Tour iu North Wales, Dublin, and its Environs," 
p. 41. 

(2) " History of Dublin Hospitals,'' by Edward Evans, Irish Builder for 1896, 
p. 225. 



INDEX. 



Page 

Abbey of St. Mary the Virgin, 
6, 12, 20, 38, 71, 74, 77, 102, 
112; of St. Thomas, 23, 55, 
138. 

Abbots of CJlondalkin, . .121 

Adams, The, of Esker, . . 59 

Adrian- Ver veer. Sir H., . . 105 

Allen, Hon. Richard, . . 143 

Aliens, The, of Palmerston, 86, 87, 93 

Aliens, The, of St. Wolstans, re- 
ferenoes to, . .11, 23, 59, 88 



Amory, Thomas, 

Annesley, Family of, 

Annaly, Lwd, 

Archbold, Gerard, 78; 
and Edward, 


. 14 
. 160 
. 1, 19 
Walter 

. 90 


Archer, Arthur, 


. 


. 132 


Archers, CJlub of, 




. 132 


Arthur, Family of, . 
Ashbourne, Sir Elias de, 




. 138 
. 3,5 


Aylmer, Captain Richard, 

Aylmers, The, oi Lyons, 
ferences to, , . 5, 6 


. 175 

re- 

, 65, 68 



Bagenal, Walter, . . .131 

Bagots, The, of Castle Bagot, 63, 65 

Ballydowd, Dermot of, . . 76 

a,llyfermot, Richard of, 102, 165 

Bamber, Captain Rog3r, . .189 

Barnard, William, Bishop of 
Derry, .... 174 

Barnewall, James, . . .65 

Bamewalls, The, of Drinmagh, 

125-131 

References to, 5, 101, 102, 105, 137 
Barracks at Chapelizod, . .174 

Bassenets, The, of Clondalkin, 112 

References to, . . 64, 68 

Bathe, James, Chief Baron, 128, 139 

Bathes, The, of Balgriffin, re- 
ference to, . . . .68 

Beg, Robert, . . . .108 

Bellew, Colonel Thomas, . . 79 

Berkeley, Nicholas de, . . 76 



Bettesworth, Lt.-Colonel Richard, 174 

Blackwell, Captain John, . .140 

Blayney, Edward, Ist Lord, 106 ; 
Edward, 3rd Lord, . . 90 

Blundell, Laurence, . .110 

Boate, Justice Godfrey, . .132 

Bolton, Sir Edward, . . 12 

Boothby, Richard, . . .29 

Boulter, Archbishop, . .174 

Boulton, Benjamin, . .158 

Bowes, John, Chief Baron, . 160 

Bradstreets, The, of Kilmainham, 

123, 160 
Breretons, The, of Crumlin, 139, 140 

Brets, The, of Rathfamham, 
references to, . . 100, 137 

Breweries at Island Bridge, . 161 

Brice, John, Mayor, . .139 

Bridges, Chapelizod, 170 ; Island, 
157, 158 ; Lucan, 35, 43, 64 ; 
Rialto, 156. 

Broughall, Richard, . .13 

Brownes, The. of Esker, 77, 86 ; 

of aondalkin, 112, 113, 118 

Brun, Nigel le, . . .164 

Budd, William, . . .154 

Budden, Joseph, . . .118 

Burgh, Richard de,. . 164, 176 

Bumells, The, of Balgriffin, re- 
ferences to, . 38, 102, 103, 165 

Bury, Sir William, ... 12 

Butler, John, 118 ; Richard, 102 ; 
Hon. Robert, 80. 

Byrne, Tirlagh, ... 65 

Cairnes, Sir Alexander, . 190, 193 

Caldbeck, William, . . .119 

Canal, The Grand, . . 63, 154 

Cantock, Thomas, Bishop and 
Chancellor, . . . 101, 165 

Carberrys, The, of Kilbride, . 68 

Carden, William, . . .105 

Carhampton, Earl of. See under 
Luttrells of Luttrellstown. 

Carter, Charles, . . .174 



200 



tNDSX. 



Page 



Castles, Adamstown, 58-60 ; 
Aderrig, 50, 60 ; Ashtown, 187 : 
Ballydowd, 78, 81; BaUyfer- 
mot, 102-105 ; Ballymount, 
108, 115-118; BaUyowen, 75, 
77-79 ; Cheeverstown, 108 ; 
aondalkin, 108, 117, 120; 
DeaQsrath, 108, 112, 117; 
Drimnagh, 125-132 ; Finns- 
town, 75, 79 ; Gallanstown, 
105 ; Grange, 63, 65 ; Irishtown, 
84, 87, 90; Kflbride, 68; 
Loughtown, 65 ; Lucan, 35-53 ; 
Luttrellstown, 1-19 ; Milltown, 
65; Nangor, 108, 112, 118, 
119; Niellstown, 118. 

Cathedral of Christ Church. 
Se^ under Priorv of Holy 
Trinity; of St. i?atrick, 38, 
59, 62, 64-67, 70, 76, 77, 83, 
111, 112, 118. 122, 133, 138, 
147, 168. 

Cemeteries— Blue Bell, 125, 132 ; 
Mount Jerome, 149-152. 



Centenarians, 



144, 175 



Chaigneau, Lewis, 1 18 ; David, 

119. 
Chamberlain, Rev. Walter, . 175 

Chief Secretaries : — Beauchamp, 
Lord, 174 ; Blaquiere, Sir John, 
196-198 ; Eden, William, 198 ; 
Sackvillc, Lord George, 196. 

Chittams, The, of Drogheda, . 154 

Chiurches : — Aderrig, 61 ; Bally- 
fermot, 106 Chapelizod, 176- 
178 ; aondalkin, 121-124 ; 
rionsilla, 6, 10. 17, '20; 
Coolmine. 20; Crumlin, 146- 
148 ; Drimnagh or Blue Bell, 
132 ; Esker, 82 ; Kilbride, 69 ; 
Kilmactalway, 66 ; Kilma- 
huddriok, 72; Lucan, 35, 44, 
49, 55; Palmerston, 99; St. 
Catherine's. 22, 34. 
Chmrches, roofs of, . 82, 147 

aahull, Robert de, . . 101 

Clements, Right Hon. Nathaniel, 
194; Right Hon. Theophilus, 
81. 

Clergymen, Succession of, of 
the Irish Church: — Aderrig, 62; 
Ballyfermot, 106; Chapelizod, 
176-178 ; aondalkin, 122-124 ; 
Crumlin, 147, 148; Kilmac- 
talway, 66, 67 ; Lucan, 55, 56. 

Clergymen, Succession of, of the 
Roman Catholic Church : — 
Chapelizod, 178 ; Clondalkin, 
123 ; Crumlin, 148 ; Lucan, 57. 



Page 
aeveland, Duchess of, . . 186 
ainch, William, . . .118 
ainton. Sir Robert de, . .138 
CcJe, Sir John, 90, 113, 118 

College, Trinity, 176 ; of Killeen, 

77. 
Collier, Sir William, . .113 

Compton, Henry de, . .136 

Coaiyns, Family of , of Balgrif- 
fin, reference to, 68, 110 

Confederates, Army of, The, 11, 42, 

87 
Connell, John, . . .188 

Convent of St. Mary de Hogges, 138 

Cooke, Colonel Edward, 186, 188, 
189 ; Sir Samuel, 33. 

Cope, Robert, 159, 160, 161 

Cork, Richard, 1st Earl of, 116, 168, 

181 

Coventry, Thomas de, . . 76 

Cox,Sir Richard,Lord Chancellor, 



96 ; Lieutenant William, 


162 


Craik, Alexander, Bishop of Kil- 
dare, .... 


112 


Cromlech, .... 


179 


Crosses, .... 


107 


Crowe, Robert, 


162 


Cruise, Sir John, 


59 


Crumlin, Thomas of, 136 ; Adam 
of, 137. 




Cunningham, Right H(hi. Robert, 
1st Lord Kofismore, 


196 


Curtis, Robert, 


162 


Curwen, Gyles, 


176 



Daniel, Sir Thomas, . . 165 

Danish Memoirs, . . 108, 156 

Davies, Sir John, 165 ; John, . 161 

Davis, Rouse, . . . .169 

Davys, The Family of, of St. 
Catherine's, . . . 29-33 

Reference to, . . .44 

Dawson, John, . . .175 

Deanes, The, of Crumlin, 140-143 

Dillon, Family of, 118; John, 
28 ; Luke, Chief Baron, 102. 

Dodson, William, . . 170, 184 

Dolfyn, David, . . .153 

Domvile, Sir Thomas, . . 105 

Dongan, John, . . .59 

Donoughmore, Earls of, . 99 



INDEX. 



201 



Douce, William, . . .68 
Drape, Mrs., .... 79 
Drwyer, Joan, . 62, 138, 147 

DufiF, Alderman Thady, . . 103 

Edwards, David, . . .169 

Esker, Adam, of, . . .76 

Estdene, William de, . . 164 

Eustace, Sir Maurice, Lord Chan- 
cellor, .... 87-93 
Beferences to, 158, 169, 182 

Eustace, Family of, 1 18 ; Richard, 65 

Ezham, John, . . . 105 

Fagans, The, of Feltrim, reference 
to, .... 66 

Fair of Crumlin, 140 ; of Palm- 
erston, ... 86, 97 

Falkiner, Daniel, 160 ; John, 119 

Fanshawe, William, . . 66 

Felde, Richard de la, . .164 

Femeley, Lieut.-Colonel Philip, 131 

Fielding, Sir Charles, . . 190 

Fingal, Countess of, . . 79 

Finlays, The, of Corkagh, . . 120 

Fisher, Sir Edward, . . 180 

Fishing Weirs, 12, 37, 168, 164, 165, 

169 

FitzAdam, Thomas, . .164 

FitzGerald, Right Hon, James, 81 

FitzGerald, The, references to, 

38, 69, 138 

FitzSimons, Archbishop Patrick, 
and Richard, 21 ; John, 111. 

Fitzwilliam, Al&td, 36 ; William, 
101. 

Fitzwilliams, The, of Merrion, 
teferences to, . . 10, 59 

Flanagan, Anthony, . .21 

Fleming, Thomas, . . .20 

Flower, Sir William, . 188, 189 

Ford, Edward, . . .162 

Forsters, The, of Ballydowd, 78, 79 

Fownes, Sir William, . . 159 

Fox, Sir Patrick, . . .139 

Foy, John, . . . .118 

Gallane, Family of, . . .138 

Gallows for County Dublin, 167, 
169, 161, 188; for Manor of 
St. Sepulchre, 149. 



Page 

Gardiners, The, of the Phoenix 
Park, . . . 193, 198 

Gamett, John, Bishop of Ferns, 174 

Gibbons, John, •. . .68 

Goodwins, The, . . .162 

Gore, Arthur, 2nd Earl of Arran, 
198 : William, Bishop of Lim- 
erick, 198. 

Gorham, Henry de, . . .164 

Greene, Anthony, 162; William, 118 

Guild of St. Anne, . . 77, 138 

Gunpowder Mills at Clondalkin, 119 

Hamilton, James, Viscount Clan- 
deboy, . . . .106 

Hanstede, Robert, % . 37 

Harford, Nicholas, . . .66 

Harley, Captain Thomas, . 139 

Harolds, The, reference to, .149 

Harptree, William of, . .136 

Harrington, Edward, . . 29 

Harris, John, . . . .159 

Harrison, Dean Theophilus, . 33- 

Harte, Family of, -. . 65, 118 

Harvey, John, . . .118 

Hatfield, Alderman Ridgly, . 28 

Haubois, Andrew, . . . 161 

Hawkins, John, . . .81 

Hay, Family of, . . . 138 

Hely-Hutchinson, 



Right 



Hon. 
97-99 



John, 

Hereford, Sir Adam de, . . 22, 58 

Hewson, Colonel John, . . 28 

Hibernian Military School, 174, 194 

Hide, Nicholas, . . .43 

Holder, Patrick, . '. .71 
Holmes, Peter, 140 ; Sampson, 164 

Holt, Lady Frances, . . 146 

Horsley, William, . . .102 

Hospital, Royal, 166, 189 ; of St. 
John the Baptist without New- 
gate, 6, 77, 84-86, 100, 187 ; 
of St. Laiu«nce at Palmerston, 
86. 

Houses : — Backweston, 60 ; Bal- 
donnell, 68 ; Castle Bagot, 63, 
65 ; Chapelizod, 163, 167-174 ; 
Chief Secretary's Lodge, 196, 
198; aondalkin, 118, 120; 
Corkagh, 120; Crumlin, 139- 
144 ; Finnstown, 75, 79 ; Her- 
mitage, 75, 80 ; Lichicore, 159, 

P 



202 



INDEX. 



Houses — con. 



Page 



160; Island Bridge, 159; 
Kilmainham, 160 ; Lucan, 51- 
55 ; Luttrellstown, 1 ; Mount 
Jerome, 150-152 ; Mountjoy, 
193 ; Newlands, 113, 118, 121 
Newtown, 190, 194; Palmers 
ton, 84-89 ; Phoenix, 180-192 
St. Catherine's, 22-34; St. 
Edmondsbury, 63 ; Under Sec 
retards Lodge, 187, 196, 198 
Viceregal Lodge, 194, 197 
Whitehall, 119; Woodville, 
75, 79. 

Hutchinson, Alderman Daniel, . 90 



Infirmary, Royal Military, . 198 

Inns :— At Chapelizod, 173, 175 ; 
at Harold's Cross, 150, 152; 
at Inchicore, 160 ; at Lucan, 
51 ; at Palmerston, 97 ; at 
Robin Hood, 132. 

Isoude, La Belle, . . .163 



Jans, Alderman James, . . 86 

Jeffreys, Colonel John, . .187 

Jephson, Robert, . . .193 

Jerome, Rev. Stephen, . .150 

Jones, Arthur, 2nd Viscount 
Ranelagh, 60, 65 ; Henry, 188 ; 
Michael, 160 ; Roger, Ist Vis- 
count Ranelagh, 181 ; Sir Theo- 
philus, 43. 90, 169; Thomas, 
145. 



Keatinge, John, Chief Justice 
of the Common Pleas, 91 ; 
Nicholas, 112. 

Keightley, Thomas, . . .162 

Kennedys, The, of Esker, 78, 79 

Keogh, John, . . . .152 

Kilmainham, John, of, . .153 

King, Matthew, . . .38 

Kissok, Henry, . . .77 

Lanesborough, Robert, 3rd Earl 

of, .... 34 

Lansdowne, Marquis of, . .131 

La Touches, The, of Marley, re- 
fercTice to, , . . . 34, 55 

Lawrence, Colonel Richard, 171-173 

Lindesay, William de, . .164 

Linen Manufacture at Chapelizod, 

171-174 



Page 

Lock, Margaret, . . .118 

Loftus, Adam, Viscount Loftus 
of Ely, 88, 130 ; Sir Adam of 
Rathfamham, 150. 

Lord Deputies and Lords 
Justices : — Arran, Earl of, 170, 
187 ; Capel, Lord, 173, 191 ; 
Chichester, Sir Arthur, 181 ; 
Falkland, Viscount, 181 ; Fleet- 
wood, General Charles, 182 ; 
Grandison, Viscount, 181 ; Kil- 
dare. Earl of, 192 ; Orrery, Earl 
of, 182 ; Ossory, Earl of, 184, 
186 ; Skeffington, Sir William, 
157; Sydney, Viscount, 173. 

Lord Lieutenants : — Berkeley, 
Lord, 187 ; Clarendon, Earl of, 
173 ; Oomwell, Henry, 91, 171, 
182 ; Essex, Earl of, 172, 186 ; 
Harcourt, Earl of, 156, 196; 
Hertford, Earl of, 174 ; Leices- 
ter, Earl of, 181 ; Ormonde, 1st 
Duke of, 169-173; Robartes, 
Lord, 170, 187; Rutland, 
Duke of, 197, 198; Shrews- 
bury, Earl of, 173 ; Strafford, 
Earl of, 181 ; Tyrconn,el, Earl 
of, 173 ; Wharton, fiarl of, ' 
191. 

Lovett, Alderman Christopher, 193 

Low, Family of, . . .176 

Lucan, Earl of. See under 
Sarsfields of Lucan. 

Lucas, Samuel, . . .29 

Luttrells, The, of Luttrellstown, 1-19 
References to, 20, 21, 59, 81, 87 

Lyons, John, . . . .118 

Lysaght, John, 1st Lord Lisle, 
143, 144 ; Hon. Joseph, 145. 

MacGillamocholmog, Chiefs of 
the line of, 64, 76, 101 

Madden, Edward, - . .119 

Magazine, The, . . .192 

Manors :-.-The King's, Crumlin, 
135-139; Esker, 75-77; the 
Archbishop of Dublin's, Clon- 
dalkin, 108-112. 

Marshall, Henry le, . . . 58 

Mason, John, . . . .169 

Mathew, Theobald, . . 143 

Meath, Earl of, . . . 150 

Meys, The, of Kilmactalway, 
64, 65, 165. 

Miles, Family of, of Clondalkin, 118 

MUls, 12, 43, 64, 77, 86, 97, 128, 151, 
153, 157, 158, 161, 165, 169^ 

Moenes, William, . • 138, 150 



INDEX. 



203 



Page 

Moljnieux, Family of, of -New- 
lands, . . . 113-115 
Reference to, . . . 104 

Monasteries, Celtic, 108, 121, 156 

Monte, John le, . . .136 

Moore, William, . . .181 

Morris, Thomas, . . .175 

Moton, John, . . . .58 

Mountcashel, Viscount. See under 
Davys, Family of, of St. 
Catherine's. 

Mount joy. Viscount. See under 
Gardiners of Phoenix Park. 



Naper, Major-General Robert, 80 

Neills, The, of Qondalkin, . Ill 

Newcomen, Sir Robert, . . 103 

References to, 113, 115; Sir 
Beverley, 104. 

Nichols, John, Surgeon- General, 191, 

194 

Nottingham, Robert de, . . 38 

Nottinghams, The, of Bally- 
owen, 77, 79, 118, 140 

Noy, William, . . .162 

O'Brien, Sir Lucius H., . . 81 

O'Keeffe, John, . . .144 

O'Neill, Sir Bryan, ... 60 

Orde, Arthur, . . .145 

Ossian 136 

O'Tooles and O' Byrnes, Incur- 
sions of, . 6, ilO, 137, 139, 157 

Palmerston, Viscount. See under 
Temples, of Palmerston. 

Parry, Right Hon. Benjamin, . 190 

Parsons, Sir William, . 115-118 
References ioy . 103, 112, 130 

Peasley, Captain Francis, . . 79 

Peches, The, of Lucan, . 36-38 
References to, ^ . 22, 55 

Peddow, Richard, . . .58 

Pennefather, Captain Thomas, . 162 

Peppard, Walter, . . .12 

Perceval, Sir John, 29, 44, 65 

Pery, Edmund, Viscount, . . 53 

Philip, John, .... 58 

Pockrich, Richard, . . .161 

Power, Sir Henry, Viscount 
Valentia, *. 165-168, 177 

Pren, William, . . .164 



Page 

Priory of Friars Minor, 112; of 
Holy Trinity, 77, 138 ; of Little 
Malvern, 6, 20; of St. 
Catherine, 23, 66 ; of St. John 
the Baptist without Newgate, 
see under Hospital of ; of St. 
John of Jerusalem at Kilmain- 
ham, 106, 153, 156, 165, 176, 
179, 180 ; of St. Wblstan, 38, 
58. 

Proby, Thomas, Surgeon- 
General, . . . .190 

Prossor, William Oulton, . . 105 

Purcells, The, of Crumlin, 139,140, 

145 



Races, Horse, 19, 145, 161 

Rebellion of 1641, 117 ; of 1798, 
145, 193 ; of Emmet, 121, 145, 
152. 

Reddy, Dr. Richard, . . 176 

Reves, Thomas le, . . .136 

Rider, John, .... 144 

Rivers:— Blue Bell, 125; Grif- 

feen, 35, 64 ; Liffey, 1, 22. 35, 

75, 86, 99, 157, 159, 163, 175, 

179. 
Rochfort, Arthur, 162 ; Family of, 

79. 

Rokeby, Sir Thomas, . .38 

RoUes, William, . . 65. 67 

Roper, Thomas, Viscount Bal- 
tinglas, 153 

Roscommon, Earl of, . .152 

Round Tower of Clondalkin, . 107 

RusseU. Family of, 64 ; James, 
13 ; John, 136. 

Ryan, John, . . . .176 

Ryves, Sir William, . . 105 

Saints, St. Bridget, 122; St. 
C\ithbert. 73; St. Finian, 77, 
82; St. Lawrence. 106; St. 
Machatus, '20 ; St. Maighnenn, 
156; St. Mary the Virgin, 65, 
122. 147 ; St. Mochua, 108, 
121 : St. Thomas, 122. 

Sankey, Sir Jerome, . .182 

Sarsfields, The, of Lucan, 39-43, 
45-48 ; references to, 8, 78. 

Savage, Richard, . . .165 

Says, Family of, . . .138 

Scarborough, Robert, . . 60 

Schomberg, Sir Alexander, . 193 

Scurlock, Family of, . . 65 



204 



INDEX. 



Page 

Sedgrave, Family of, 71 ; Thomas, 
60. 

Sepulchres, Prehistoric, . 36, 134 

Shillingford, John, . . .Ill 

Slingsby, Family of, . 16, 20 

Smith, Robert, 118 ; Sir Thomas, 
190; William, 90. 

Smythe, Philip, 4th Viscount 
Strangford, 98 

Spa, Chapelizod, 172,175 ; Lucan, 
35, 54. 

Spottiswood, Bishop, 168, 177 ; 
Sir Henry, 168. 

Springs, Mineral, . . 81, 175 

Stafford, Family of, . . 138 

Staynings, George, . . .23 

Stephens, Family of, 1 38 ; John, 
154. 

Stone, Archbishop, . . .174 

Styles, Richard, . . .105 

Sueterby, Nicholas, . . . 153 

Sutton, Sir Richard, . . 180 



Talbot, Family of, 105, 118; 
Mrs., 198. 

Taylor, Christopher, 77 ; Thomas, 

Temples, The, of Palmerston, 
93-96 ; references to, 158, 190. 

Tench, Andrew, . . .144 

Thomond, Earl of, . . .12 

Thunder, Patrick, . . 65, 71 

Thwaites, George, . . .145 

Tingham, Edmond, . .168 

Trail, Sir John, . . .160 

Travers, Sir John, ... 4 

Trench, Thomas Cooke, . . 34 

Trevor, Marcus, Viscount Dun- 
gannon, 189. 

Trundell, William, . . .118 

. 156, 179 



Tweddall, Gregory, 
Ussher, Sir William, 
Usshers, The, of Crumlin, 
Befererices to. 



. 77 
. 150 
. 141 

78, 87 



Valentia, Viscounts of — see under 
Annesley, Family of, and 
Power, Sir Henry. 

Veseys, The, of Lucan, -. 48-55 

Victoria, Queen, ... 1 

Vincent, Thomas, . . .90 

Wadeley, Robert, . . .174 

Walker, Lieut. -Colonel Nicholas, 131 

Walsh, Philip, K.c, 143 ; Robert, 
138. 

Warburton, Richard, . . 34 

Warren, Henry, . . 89 

Watercourse, City, . 137, 153 

Waterhouse, Mrs., . . . 105 

Welds, The, of Harold's Cross, . 151 



22, 35, 53, 63, 107 

. 103 

. 184 

. 138 



Tyrells, Family of. 



Wells, 

Wespey, Richard, . 

Westley, Dr. J., 

Whitbred, Family of, 

White, John, 165 ; Richard, 175 ; 
William le, 76. 

Whites, The, of St. Catherine's, 23-28 

References to, . . 59, 93 

Wilcocks, Family of, of Palmers- 
ton, ... 96, 97 

Wilkinsons, The, of Mount Jerome, 
»51. 

William III., King, 141, 163, 173 

Wodehose, Richard de, . .165 

Wolfe, Arthur, Viscount Kil- 

warden, . . . .121 

Wolseley, Sur Richard, . . 34 

Wolverston, Nicholas, . .71 

Wynne, Anthony, . . .118 

Wysse, Sir William, . . 165 



^' 



-^^-j' 2 6 1956 



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